Pompeo to visit N Korea next week, names Ford executive as envoy

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today appointed a senior executive with Ford Motor Co to be his special envoy for North Korea and said they both would visit Pyongyang next week.

Pompeo announced that he had chosen Stephen Biegun to handle day-to-day negotiations with the North over dismantling its nuclear weapons program.

Pompeo has been leading the effort for President Donald Trump and has already made three trips to Pyongyang since April, although there have been few visible signs of progress in the talks.

Pompeo said he and Biegun would be travelling to North Korea "to make further diplomatic progress toward our objective" of its full, final and complete denuclearisation.

Pompeo offered no other details about the trip.

In brief remarks to reporters at the State Department, he and Biegun both noted that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had pledged to denuclearise in his historic meeting in June with Trump.

"The issues are tough and they will be tough to resolve," Biegun said.

"But the president has created an opening and it's one that we must take by seizing every possible opportunity to realise the vision for a peaceful future for the people of North Korea. This begins with the final, fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea as agreed by Chairman Kim Jong Un at the summit with President Trump in Singapore."