"There's gonna be a lot of work left to do," said Pompeo, adding that the U.S. was "not going to conduct these negotiations in the open with the media. We're going to conduct them between the two parties so that we have an opportunity to have a real success here." He said the discussions on Tuesday "will set the framework for the hard work that will follow."
The top American diplomat said he was "very optimistic we will have a successful outcome" from the summit, and going forward with the process it seeks to establish. He stressed that the U.S. would insist on a process of disarmament that was entirely verifiable -- with the North's steps being verified before reciprocal measures were taken by the U.S.
CBS News' Garrett says Pompeo did tell reporters on Monday that the U.S. would be prepared to offer North Korea something brand new -- suggesting concessions which hadn't been tabled by previous administrations -- but he would not elaborate.
Pompeo would not discuss any specific parameters for the meeting he and Mr. Trump had discussed, such as red lines that would see the U.S. leader stand up and walk out of the discussion with Kim -- something he has vowed to do if it doesn't go well.
"The president is fully prepared for the meeting tomorrow," said Pompeo.
A State Department official told CBS News that U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Sung Kim and his team started talks with their North Korean counterparts on Monday at about 10 a.m. local time. They took a brief break, during which Ambassador Kim spoke with Pompeo, but as of 5 p.m. local time the discussion was still going on, likely causing Pompeo's Monday news conference to be delayed.
As CBS News reporter Kylie Atwood notes, it was a long day of negotiations ahead of the historic leaders' summit. The State Department tweeted a photo of the diplomats around a conference table and said it had been a "substantive" day of meetings -- mirroring Pompeo's early description of the meetings as "substantive and detailed."
The U.S. diplomatic team, led by Ambassador Kim, left talks in the Demilitarized Zone with its North Korean counterparts last week without a pre-baked statement or agreed-upon path forward beyond the summit, according to administration officials.
Traditionally, in meetings between world leaders, officials from both sides reach an agreement before the leaders sit down together. This time the outcome will largely depend on the meeting itself and the chemistry between the two leaders, one administration official said.
The U.S would like to walk away with a signed agreement detailing a path forward, but diplomats and administration officials don't know whether that will happen.
Kim seeks relief from crippling economic sanctions imposed by the international community, a non-aggression pact that would guarantee his regime's security, normalization of relations and the eventual removal of the roughly 30,000 U.S. troops from South Korea. These are long-term aspirations that will not be resolved in one meeting. The U.S. has said a formal end to the Korean War needs to be negotiated between the North and South, but this topic is sure to come up.
Analysts argue that North Korea has already notched a win by holding a summit at all -- it legitimizes Kim on the world stage. Kim craves modernization and believes that can be accomplished, in part, by foreign investment and trade currently blocked by sanctions.
