U.S. relations with North Korea are better now than a year ago due to a thawing of tensions between the two countries’ leaders, Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel said, despite Washington’s cancellation of a recent diplomatic visit to Pyongyang.

“We are certainly in a better place than we were in 2017 because of the dialogue we have established between our two leaders,” Ms. Haspel said on Monday during remarks at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

The...