Tillerson says plans for North Korea meeting ‘in the very early stages’

The United States has yet to hear from North Korea after President Donald Trump accepted an invitation to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday.

"We have not heard anything directly back from North Korea, although we do expect to hear something directly from them,” Tillerson said during a press conference in Nigeria.


South Korean officials last Thursday announced that Trump accepted North Korea's invitation. The White House said the meeting would only happen if North Korea agreed to avoid any missile testing and did not object to U.S.- South Korea joint military exercises.

Tillerson said discussions on the scope of the meeting are still “in the very early stages” and “several steps will be necessary to agree on a location.”

“I know those are all questions people are anxious to have answers to. I would say remain patient, and we'll see what happens,” he said.

When pressed on the location of the meeting, Tillerson said no agreements have been reached.

“I don't want to start floating ideas out through the media,” he said. “I think it's going to be very important that those kind of conversations are held quietly between the two parties.“

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday afternoon said that officials expect the meeting will happen.

“We fully expect that it will,” she said during the White House daily press briefing. “The offer was made and we accepted. North Korea made several promises and we hope that they would stick to those promises. If so, the meeting will go on as planned.”

Sanders added that preparations are continuing on a “number of levels.”

“Most of that is an inner administration, an inner agency process and I'm not going to get ahead of any of the details of the where, the when or any of that here today,“ she said.