Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, appears to have opted to visit a potato farm instead of meeting Mike Pompeo when the US Secretary of State was in Pyongyang over the weekend for the latest round of discussions on the future of the Korean Peninsula.

Mr Pompeo arrived in the North Korean capital on July 6 - but his three-day visit was ignored by the North Korean dictator.

Mr Pompeo’s aides were largely kept in the dark about the schedule for the visit, including where they would be staying, and repeated requests about when the secretary of state would be able to meet Mr Kim went unanswered.

Instead, he held talks with Kim Yong-chol, a general and member of the central committee of the Workers’ Party who is widely seen as Mr Kim’s right-hand man.

Mr Pompeo’s remarks during the discussions did not please the North Korean side, however, with the Foreign Ministry quoted as describing Washington’s demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea as “gangster-like”.