A top North Korean official was headed Tuesday to the U.S., as diplomacy surrounding a possible nuclear summit in Singapore between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un kicked into high gear.
Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the North Korea’s ruling party, will meet later this week with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Mr. Trump took to Twitter to heralded the visit and progress in summit preparations.
“We have put a great team together for our talks with North Korea. Meetings are currently taking place concerning Summit, and more. Kim Young Chol, the Vice Chairman of North Korea, heading now to New York. Solid response to my letter, thank you!” Mr. Trump tweeted.
He was referring to the response to his letter Thursday in which he cancelled the meeting over what he called increased “hostility” by North Korea.
By Sunday, preparations for the summit again appeared to be in full swing.
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Mrs. Sanders said that the North Koreans “have been engaging” since receiving the letter.
Kim Yong-chol also accompanied Kim Jong-un in his surprise meeting Saturday with South Korea President Moon Jae-in to try to salvage the summit.
Kim Yong-chol, who is considered Kim Jong-un’s right-hand man, was booked on an Air China flight Tuesday from Beijing to New York and was spotted in the Beijing airport by Associated Press Television.
He will be the most senior North Korean official to visit the United States in 18 years.
The visit coincided with a flurry of diplomatic activity surrounding the potential summit on North Korea giving up nuclear weapons.
A U.S. team was in South Korea and holding talks with North Korean officials in Panmunjom, a town that straddles the border between North and South in the demilitarized zone.
The U.S. delegation consists of Sung Kim, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines; Allison Hooker, director for Korea on the National Security Council; and Randy Schriver, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs.
More meetings are planned this week in Panmunjom, said Mrs. Sanders.
Advance teams also were in Singapore preparing for the possible historic summit.
Additionally, National Security Advisor John Bolton has had calls with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts virtually every day, including speaking with his South Korean counterpart Tuesday morning,” said Mrs. Sanders.
“These calls have been ongoing over the last couple of weeks,” she said.
The visit by Kim Yong-chol, who previously served as the head of the North’s intelligence agency, reciprocates two recent visits to Pyongyang by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Mintaro Oba, a former State Department official specializing on North Korea, described the visit by Kim Yong-chol as both an opportunity and risk for the Trump administration.
“At best, this will give U.S. officials a better understanding of North Korea’s position and steer the summit in a more realistic direction,” he told N.K. News, a South Korea-based news service. “At worst, tense meetings will cloud or poison the atmosphere, calling the summit into question once again. It’s hard to tell which direction is more plausible right now.”
As a former spy chief, Kim Yong-chol also has a shady record.
The Treasury Department in August 2010 designated him as leader of the North’s intelligence agency for being suspected of involvement in conventional arms sales.
South Korea officials accused him of being the mastermind behind the 2010 sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean corvette patrol combat ship. The ship went down in the Yellow Sea in March 2010, killing 46 seamen.
However, Kim Yong-chol is not under a United Nations travel ban.
“We can also probably expect that some in Washington may raise concerns about the optics of meeting with an official with Kim Yong-chol’s past of provocations,” Mr. Oba said.
We have put a great team together for our talks with North Korea. Meetings are currently taking place concerning Summit, and more. Kim Young Chol, the Vice Chairman of North Korea, heading now to New York. Solid response to my letter, thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2018
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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