US, N.Korea in talks on summit
China urges both sides to seize ‘historic opportunity’
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a top North Korean official continued 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 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
US President Donald Trump said Thursday he was expecting to receive a message from Kim Jong-un.
“I look forward to seeing what’s in the letter. They will probably be coming to Washington DC on Friday to deliver the letter so I look forward to that,” Trump said before heading to Texas for the day.
He also said that meetings in New York between Pompeo and Kim Yong-chol were going “very well.”
Kim Yong-chol, considered the North Korean leader’s righthand man, is the most senior official from Pyongyang to visit the US 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 were scheduled for Thursday.
“Good working dinner with Kim Yong-chol in New York tonight,” Pompeo tweeted.
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.
China on Thursday urged the US and North Korea to seize the “historic opportunity” for the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.
“The current situation on the Korean Peninsula has broken years of deadlock and provided a historic opportunity for denuclearization.
“We encourage and support North Korea and the US to further demonstrate sincerity, engage in sound interactions, meet on schedule and jointly open the door to a nuclear-free, peaceful and prosperous future for the Korean Peninsula.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a daily press briefing on Thursday.
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.
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign minister arrived in Pyongyang for talks with Kim Jong-un, saying before the meeting that Moscow “welcomes” the recent flurry of diplomacy on the peninsula.
“We also cheer the summits that have already taken place between Pyongyang and Seoul, and the next planned summit between the leaders of North Korea and US,” said Lavrov, on his first visit to the North since 2009.
Lavrov passed on greetings from President Vladimir Putin to the North Korean leader and invited him to visit Russia, according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Russia is the latest major nation to reach out to North Korea since Trump accepted Kim’s proposal for a summit to defuse tensions.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump suddenly announced a cancellation of the summit, before reversing course 24 hours later.