The U.S. Department of State said the U.S. and North Korea formed a working group that will deal with crucial issues such as the verification of the North's denuclearization. 

The latest news come as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is holding high-level talks with North Korea in Pyongyang.

Arriving in the North on Friday, Pompeo held talks with senior North Korean official Kim Yong-chol for nearly three hours.

Pompeo is visiting Pyongyang to draft a concrete action plan on implementing the agreement on North Korea's denuclearization reached during the U.S.-North Korea summit in Singapore last month.

U.S. officials told Reuters that Pompeo would try to agree on at least an initial list of nuclear sites and an inventory that could be checked against the available intelligence. 

After the first meeting with the North Korean official on Friday, Pompeo wrote on Twitter that three weeks after the Singapore summit, his team has "worked tirelessly to keep the conversation moving forward."

He said he had just wrapped up the first meeting of the day and is proud of his team’s work. 

Before the second meeting with North Korea Saturday morning, the secretary spoke on the phone with U.S. President Donald Trump and briefed him on the progress so far.

According to a pool report by journalists who are covering his visit in Pyongyang, the second round of negotiations resumed at 9 a.m.

Pompeo will fly straight to Tokyo from Pyongyang later Saturday where he will brief his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on the result of the talks.

[Photo : YONHAP News]