Washington (CNN) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that he and his newly announced special representative to North Korea, Stephen Biegun, will be traveling to Pyongyang next week.

It will be Pompeo's fourth trip to Pyongyang, but, while officials hope he will have the opportunity to engage directly with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said later on Thursday there "are no plans for a meeting" with Kim on the trip.

Kim snubbed Pompeo during the last round of meetings in North Korea early last month, which sources told CNN went "as badly as it could have gone."

Pompeo announced the hiring of Biegun at the State Department on Thursday. He's a former auto executive at Ford Motor Co. and a former senior staff member to then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice in the George W. Bush administration who was rumored to be a possible candidate to replace former national security adviser H.R. McMaster.

New US special representative to North Korea Steve Biegun speaks after being named by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department on August 23, 2018. (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP)

Biegun assumes the role as special envoy to North Korea at a time when talks between the two countries appear to have stalled over the issue of denuclearization.

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