NEW YORK (AP) - The Latest on the United States and North Korea (all times local):
9:30 p.m.
North and South Korea are resuming senior-level peace talks that Seoul sees as an important step in building trust with Pyongyang amid a U.S.-led diplomatic push to persuade the North to give up its nuclear weapons.
The meeting at an inter-Korean border village Friday follows a meeting in New York between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol. They discussed a potential summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
South Korea plans to use Friday’s meeting with the North to set up military talks on reducing tensions across their heavily armed border and Red Cross talks to resume reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
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2:40 p.m.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol will travel to Washington on Friday to deliver a letter to President Donald Trump from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Pompeo spoke to reporters in New York after meeting Thursday with Kim Yong Chol, the former military intelligence chief. Pompeo says “real progress” has been made in the last three days toward setting the conditions needed for Trump and Kim Jong Un to have a successful summit in Singapore. Still, he says he doesn’t yet know whether the meeting will proceed on June 12.
Pompeo says he believes North Korea’s leaders are contemplating a different path forward that would allow their nation to more fully integrate into the international community.
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12:32 p.m.
A U.S. official says that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s meetings with a top North Korean official ended more than two hours earlier than expected because the talks “went well” and “made progress” in salvaging an on-again, off-again summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The official says the high-stakes discussion lasted between 9:05 and 11:25 a.m., concluding well before the scheduled end of 1:30 p.m. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the details of the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity. Shortly after leaving the meeting venue at the residence of the deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Pompeo tweeted that the talks had been “substantive.”
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12:05 p.m.
The State Department says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a top North Korean official have concluded their meetings in New York, wrapping up the high-stakes diplomatic negotiation nearly two hours earlier than expected.
Pompeo and former North Korean military intelligence chief Kim Yong Chol had been expected to hold two sessions, separated by a break, and finish their discussions around 1:30 p.m. But both men and their delegations left the residence of the deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations around 11:30 a.m. The talks began at 9:05 a.m.
There was no indication of what the early finish might mean in terms of salvaging an on-again, off-again U.S.-North Korea summit.
President Donald Trump said Thursday the talks were going well and that North Korean officials may come to Washington on Friday.
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9:20 a.m.
President Donald Trump says talks about a potential summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un are going “very well.”
Trump told reporters Thursday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is having “very good meetings.” He said he believes the North Koreans may come to Washington Friday and that a letter will be “delivered to me from Kim Jong Un (kim jawng oon).”
Trump says he “will see what happens.” But Trump added “hopefully we will have a meeting on the 12th.”
Trump also tweeted Thursday: “Very good meetings with North Korea.”
The Singapore summit has been in flux for days. Trump last week canceled the sit-down, but then quickly said it could get back on track.
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9:18 a.m.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korea’s former military intelligence chief have opened talks in New York to try to salvage an on-again, off-again summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
After an informal dinner on Wednesday, Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol were meeting at the three-bedroom apartment residence of the US deputy ambassador to the United Nations. Kim Yong Chol, one of Kim Jong Un’s closest aides, is the highest-ranking North Korean official to visit the U.S. in 18 years.
Pompeo, who spoke with Trump on Wednesday night and with national security adviser John Bolton early Thursday, was accompanied by Andrew Kim, the head of a CIA unit assigned to work on North Korea, and Mark Lambert, the head of the State Department’s Korea desk.
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12:17 a.m.
Top American and North Korean officials plan a full day of meetings in New York aimed at deciding whether a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can be salvaged.
Ahead of the meetings Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the North’s former military intelligence chief, Kim Yong Chol, had dinner Wednesday night. Kim had flown in from Beijing and Pompeo from Washington.
The talks come as preparations for a highly anticipated summit in Singapore barrel ahead amid lingering uncertainty about whether it will actually take place, and when. Trump cancelled the June 12 summit last week, then suggested it could still happen.
U.S. teams have been meeting with North Korean officials in Singapore and in the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone
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