US doing best to check reports of execution of N Korean nuclear envoy: Pompeo

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday the United States is attempting to check on reports that a senior North Korean official involved in Pyongyang's non-proliferation talks with Washington has been executed.

"We've seen the reporting to which you are referring," Pompeo told a news conference in Berlin in answer to a reporter's question. "We're doing our best to check it out. I don't have anything else to add to that today." Earlier on Friday, a South Korean newspaper reported that nuclear envoy Kim Hyok Choi had been executed as part of a purge of officials who steered negotiations for a failed summit between leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump.