A U.S. government handout photo released by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders shows U.S. Central Intelligence (CIA) Director Mike Pompeo meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, North Korea in a photo that Sanders said was taken over Easter weekend 2018.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to return with three Americans held in North Korea, a South Korean presidential official said on Wednesday.

The official said that during Pompeo's visit to North Korea he was expected to finalise the date of an unprecedented summit planned between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean

leader Kim Jong Un.

Pompeo arrived in North Korean capital Pyongyang on Wednesday to prepare for the summit, while the U.S. president signaled the possibility that three Americans detained in the country could soon be released.