U.S. President Donald Trump is meeting North Korea’s top nuclear envoy Friday at the White House Oval Office to discuss efforts to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program, VOA reports.
In a statement, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump and Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the Workers Party of Korea and chairman of the Korea Asia Pacific Peace Committee, will “discuss relations between the two countries and continued progress on North Korea’s final, fully verified denuclearization.”
General Kim Yong Chol, a former North Korean spymaster who is often referred to as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s right-hand man, is reported to be bringing Trump a personal letter from Kim. The meeting adds to speculation that Washington and Pyongyang could soon announce a second summit between the two leaders.
Earlier Friday, Kim Yong Chol met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a Washington hotel. The meeting’s aim was to revive nuclear negotiations which have been postponed for months over what U.S. officials say is Pyongyang’s refusal to meet Washington’s demand for a detailed inventory of its nuclear and missile programs.
Pompeo did not respond to journalists’ questions about the meeting.
Speculation abounds regarding a second Trump-Kim summit. American media reports have quoted sources saying it could happen around March or April with Danang, Vietnam, being discussed as one of the likely venues.
Denuclearization
On several occasions Trump has expressed his confidence on North Korean denuclearization. “With North Korea, we have a very good dialogue,” he said Jan. 6, adding that it’s “very special” and that with “anybody else but me, you’d be in war right now.”
But critics point out that Pyongyang has not taken measurable steps toward disarmament since the first Trump-Kim historic summit in Singapore last June.
At the United Nations on Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres encouraged both countries to continue talks.
“We believe it’s high time to make sure the negotiations between the United States and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea start again seriously and that a road map is clearly defined for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Guterres told reporters. “We won’t advocate for any anticipation of other measures before a clear negotiation is put in place, aiming at denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula with a road map.”