A North Korean envoy arrived in Washington on Thursday for expected talks with Foreign Secretary Mike Pompeo, possibly meeting President Donald Trump to lay the groundwork for a second summit between Washington and Pyongyang.
The envoy arrived on the same day as Trump unveiled a revised US missile defense strategy that singled out North Korea as an "extraordinary threat," seven months after his first summit with leader Kim Jong-un declared that the North Korean threat was over.
Kim Yong-chul, who leads North Korea's nuclear disarmament talks in talks with the United States, will meet with Pompeo as he visits the White House on Friday, a source familiar with the plan said in a sign of a possible move in diplomatic efforts that have stalled for months. sound.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the North Korean official's visit could result in plans for another summit between Trump and Kim Jong-un.
But there are no signs of narrowing differences over US demands that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons program, which threatens the United States or asks Pyongyang to lift sanctions.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Kim Yong-chul, a former intelligence chief, had arrived in Washington on a commercial flight from Beijing.
Yonhap and other South Korean media said that US special envoy to North Korea, Stephen Pigeon, had met Kim at Dallas airport.
Pompeo had planned to meet with his North Korean counterpart to discuss a second summit in November, but the meeting was postponed at the last minute.
South Korean Ambassador to the United States Zhou Yunjie told reporters last week that diplomatic contacts resumed after Kim Jong-un delivered a New Year speech saying he was ready to meet with Trump "at any time."
Kim Yong-chul's last visit to Washington in June, when Trump delivered a letter from the North Korean leader, paved the way for the June 12 summit in Singapore.
