{"id":44534,"date":"2018-06-01T02:22:36","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T02:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=44534"},"modified":"2018-06-01T02:22:36","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T02:22:36","slug":"key-north-korea-official-meets-pompeo-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=44534","title":{"rendered":"Key North Korea official meets Pompeo in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The right-hand man to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York to discuss a historic summit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gen Kim Yong-chol dined with Mr Pompeo after flying in from China and the two are due to meet again on Thursday.<\/p>\n

He is the most senior North Korean to visit the US in nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump previously cancelled the 12 June summit, but both sides have since made fresh efforts to hold it as planned.<\/p>\n

Scheduled to happen in Singapore, the historic meeting would be the first between sitting US and North Korean leaders.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday evening, Mr Pompeo and Gen Kim arrived separately at a building close to the UN headquarters.<\/p>\n

Emerging later, Mr Pompeo tweeted: “Good working dinner with Kim Yong Chol in New York tonight. Steak, corn, and cheese on the menu.”<\/p>\n

Ahead of the meeting, Mr Pompeo had set out the US position.<\/p>\n

North Korea has strongly objected to statements by Trump administration members comparing North Korean denuclearisation to Libya's.<\/p>\n

Former Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi gave up his nuclear programme only for him to be killed by Western-backed rebels a few years later.<\/p>\n

Further talks are planned for Thursday.<\/p>\n

What other talks are going on?<\/strong>
\nChoe Son-hui, North Korea's vice-foreign minister, is continuing to meet Sung Kim, a former US ambassador to South Korea, at Panmunjom on the border between the two Koreas.<\/p>\n

These talks have been continuing since Sunday with some long breaks.<\/p>\n

The two diplomats have faced one another before during previous denuclearisation negotiations.<\/p>\n

In Singapore itself, a US team led by Joe Hagin is thought to be meeting Kim Chang-son, the de facto chief of staff to the North Korean leader, to talk about logistics.<\/p>\n

And Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, has arrived in Pyongyang for talks. He told Russian media he wanted to understand North Korea's position.<\/p>\n

Mr Lavrov also spoke to Mr Pompeo for the first time on Wednesday, by phone.<\/p>\n

White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders confirmed the US and North Korean leaders still planned to meet next month.<\/p>\n

“As the president says, if it happens, we'll certainly be ready,” she said.<\/p>\n

Salvaging a summit?<\/strong>
\nBy Barbara Plett Usher, BBC state department correspondent in New York<\/p>\n

The tone from the White House has been upbeat in recent days and Sarah Sanders sounded optimistic that the summit would go ahead on 12 June, as originally planned.<\/p>\n

She would not say, though, what exactly Mike Pompeo needed to hear from Kim Yong-chol in order to make that happen.<\/p>\n

Gen Kim is a seasoned nuclear negotiator and trusted aid to Kim Jong-un. He would have the authority to give details about what Pyongyang can and cannot put on the table when it comes to negotiations on dismantling its nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

The fact that such a high-level North Korean official has come to the US to try and patch things up shows how much both leaders want the summit to go ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The right-hand man to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York to discuss a historic summit. Gen Kim Yong-chol dined with Mr Pompeo after flying in from China and the two are due to meet again on Thursday. He is the most senior North Korean to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":44535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n