Kim Jong Un says N. Korea’s will for denuclearization ‘unchanged’

North Korea’s will for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula remains “unchanged, consistent and fixed,” said leader Kim Jong Un, according to the North's state news agency on Friday.

Making the remarks in a meeting with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Kim added he hoped North Korea-U.S. relations and denuclearization of the Korean peninsula would both be solved on a “stage-by-stage” basis, KCNA said.|

The report also said Kim and Lavrov agreed to boost exchanges and cooperation between North Korea and Russia, with the two agreeing on a bilateral summit this year.

Earlier, in New York Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol will travel to Washington on Friday to deliver a letter to President Donald Trump from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Pompeo spoke to reporters in New York after meeting onThursday with Kim Yong Chol, the former military intelligence chief.

Pompeo said “real progress” has been made in the last three days toward setting the conditions needed for Trump and Kim Jong Un to have a successful summit in Singapore.

Still, he said he doesn’t yet know whether the meeting will proceed on June 12.