KOREAN SUMMIT STILL ALIVE,

U.S. officials meet delegates in the North

SEOUL • A team of U.S. officials crossed into North Korea Sunday for talks to prepare for a summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un as both sides press ahead with arrangements despite question marks hanging over the meeting.

Sung Kim, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and former nuclear negotiator with the North, has been called in from his posting as envoy to the Philippines to lead the preparations, according to a person familiar with the arrangements.

He crossed the line that separates the two Koreas to meet with Choe Son Hui, the North Korean vice foreign minister, who said last week Pyongyang was “reconsidering” the talks. Kim and Choe know each other well — both were part of the delegations that negotiated the 2005 denuclearization agreement through the sixparty framework.

Kim is also joined by Allison Hooker, the Korea specialist on the National Security Council, and an official from the Defense Department. Randall Schriver, the assistant secretary of defence for East Asia and one of the officials who accompanied Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang earlier this month, also is in Seoul at the moment.

The meetings are expected to continue Monday and Tuesday.

This team is focused on the substance of any summit between the two leaders — the issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

After Saturday’s surprise inter-Korean talks, South Korean President Moon Jaein said Kim Jong Un was still committed to the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula. But Moon declined to define “complete denuclearization,” suggesting there are still fundamental gaps on the key issue bedevilling preparations.

Still, Moon, who is playing something of a mediator role in the talks, was optimistic. “We two leaders agreed the June 12 North Korea-U.S. summit must be successfully held,” he said.

The U.S. team preparing for the talks travelled Sunday to Tongilgak or “Unification House,” the building where Kim met Moon Saturday for impromptu talks aimed at salvaging the summit.

After North Korean officials, lashed out at VicePresident Mike Pence and national security adviser John Bolton, Trump abruptly announced he was cancelling the talks, citing North Korea’s “tremendous anger.”

But after a magnanimous statement from North Korea Friday, which said Kim still hoped to meet Trump “at any time,” the summit appears to be on again.

“We are having very productive talks with North Korea about reinstating the Summit which, if it does happen, will likely remain in Singapore on the same date, June 12th, and, if necessary, will be extended beyond that date,” Trump tweeted Friday night.

The White House has said preparations will continue while the final decision on whether to proceed with the summit, scheduled to be held in Singapore, is made.

Trump confirmed Saturday that working-level meetings were continuing.