US President Donald Trump sacks Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

US President Donald Trump has sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

CIA chief Mike Pompeo will replace him.

Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018

In a statement to The Washington Post, Trump said: “I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well.”

There has been no official explanation for the change, which comes ahead of proposed talks between the US and North Korea, but tension had mounted between Tillerson and the President over recent weeks, with the Secretary seen as being at odds with Trump on foreign policy.

It is understood that Tillerson had been asked to step down on Friday.

Just hours before his sacking, he said that the poison attack on a former spy and his daughter in the UK had ‘clearly’ come from Russia in an escalation of the US response to the incident.

Incoming Secretary Pompeo said he was deeply grateful for the new opportunity to serve Trump.

He said: “[Trump’s]  leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America’s prosperity.

“Serving alongside the great men and women of the CIA, the most dedicated and talented public servants I have encountered, has been one of the great honors of my life.”

Trump announced last week that he would have a face to face meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un this spring.

On Sunday, Pompeo told Fox News: “Never before have we had the North Koreans in a position where their economy was at such risk, where their leadership was under such pressure,” he told Fox News Sunday.

“Make no mistake: while these negotiations are going on, there will be no concessions made.”

With Pompeo’s appointment, the CIA’s deputy director Gina Hapsel will be promoted, becoming the first female director of the intelligence agency.