US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a top North Korean official are set to continue talks in New York on Thursday to try to salvage next month’s nuclear summit, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov flew into Pyongyang for discussions with Kim Jong Un.
Kim Yong Chol, considered the North Korean leader’s right-hand man, is the most senior official from Pyongyang to visit the United States in 18 years.
Pyongyang’s envoy joined Pompeo at the apartment of a US diplomat on Manhattan’s East side for talks over an evening meal that lasted about an hour and a half. Two more meetings are scheduled for Thursday.
“Good working dinner with Kim Yong Chol in New York tonight,” Pompeo tweeted. “Steak, corn, and cheese on the menu.”
It was the third meeting between the two officials who are working to finalize planning for a June 12 summit designed to end a nuclear standoff that has threatened to plunge Korea back into war.
“They are meeting to see what needs to be done in the two weeks that remain,” a senior US official said.
“Between now and if we’re going to have a summit, they’re going to have to make clear what they’re willing to do.”
US and North Korean envoys have also been meeting in Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, and an American team is in Singapore to make logistical arrangements for the meeting.
Washington wants North Korea to quickly give up all its nuclear weapons in a verifiable way in return for sanctions and economic relief.
But analysts say North Korea will be unwilling to cede its nuclear deterrent unless it is given security guarantees that the US will not try to topple the regime.
Source: AFP
