U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party and a close aide to leader Kim Jong Un, met at a Washington hotel, aiming to advance talks on a date and location for a summit.
The North Korean envoy is expected to meet Trump at the White House later, if there is progress in the meeting with Pompeo.
In the first high-level bilateral gathering since Pompeo visited the North in October, the two officials also discussed ways to advance talks over denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, a goal on which Trump and Kim agreed when they met last June in Singapore, but has seen little progress since.
If Kim Yong Chol is granted a visit to the White House, he is expected to hand-deliver a letter from Kim Jong Un to Trump, as he did in May 2018.
Trump has invited Kim Jong Un in a letter to meet once more, possibly in Vietnam or Thailand, U.S. media have reported. Some posit a summit could take place in March or April in central Vietnam’s Danang, while others cite the capital city of Hanoi as the likely venue.
The U.S. has insisted that Pyongyang stick to Kim’s promise of “complete denuclearization” from the Singapore summit and disclose all its warheads and facilities, as well as submit to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“We still await concrete steps by North Korea to dismantle the nuclear weapons that threaten our people and our allies,” U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said in a Wednesday speech.
Meanwhile, the North has requested that Washington take “corresponding measures” in return for dismantling its Punggye-ri nuclear test site and a missile engine testing area at Tongchang-ri. Having economic sanctions lifted is a chief desire for Pyongyang, but Washington has held firm on maintaining the penalties until denuclearization is complete.