U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's meeting with his North Korean counterpart scheduled for Thursday in New York has been postponed, the U.S. State Department said.
"We will reconvene when our respective schedules permit. Ongoing conversations continue to take place," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, without giving reasons, according to CNN.
On Monday, the U.S. State Department said in a statement that Pompeo and Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun will meet with North Korea's vice chairman for the central committee Kim Yong-Chol, a key aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, on Nov. 8.
They were expected to discuss "making progress on all four pillars of the Singapore Summit joint statement, including achieving the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK," according to the statement.
South Korea's presidential office said the government was notified of the postponement from the U.S. before the announcement, Yoon Young-chan, senior secretary to the president for public communication, told reporters Wednesday.
Presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom also said that the delay doesn't mean cancellation and would not affect the current drive for talks between the U.S. and North Korea.
Kim raised hope for a meeting between Pompeo and Kim in a press briefing on Tuesday. He said the U.S. and North Korea could discuss "setting a new U.S.-North Korea relation and ways for permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula," as agreed by their leaders at the Singapore Summit in June.
Pompeo made a brief trip to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Oct. 7, following the September summit between North and South Korean leaders.