WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet with North Korean officials at the "earliest possible date" to follow up on last week's nuclear deal between the countries' leaders, the State Department said Thursday.

Pompeo is expected to travel to North Korea within days to flesh out the agreement signed by US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their summit in Singapore.

"Secretary Pompeo will be meeting with them and talking with them at the earliest possible date to try to implement the outcomes of the US-DPRK summit," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said at a regular press briefing, using the acronym for North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "We don't have any meetings or travel to announce at this time."

Kim committed to the "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula in exchange for security guarantees from the US.

At issue is how quickly North Korea will agree to dismantle its nuclear weapons program and what concessions it will demand in the process.

In line with Trump's announcement last week, South Korea and the US have suspended a major joint military exercise slated for August while the negotiations are under way.

"It will be a lengthy process in terms of these conversations and the meetings that we will have with this government," Nauert said. "There's a lot of work ahead of us, a lot of work left to be done."(Yonhap)