US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Washington is ready to begin negotiating immediately to achieve the denuclearisation of North Korea by January 2021.<br />''<br />''<br />''In a statement, Pompeo said he spoke with his North Korean counterpart today morning and invited him to meet in New York next week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.<br />''<br />''<br />''Mr Pompeo said on the basis of these important commitments, the United States is prepared to engage immediately in negotiations to transform US-DPRK relations.<br />'' <br />''<span style="color: #222222;">The statement came after the North's leader Kim Jong Un agreed to make a historic visit to Seoul soon and close a missile testing site in front of international inspectors in a meeting with the South's President Moon Jae-in. Kim's trip to Seoul would be the first by a Northern leader since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, when hostilities ceased with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving them technically in a state of war.</span><br />