Top North Korean general heads to US, Russian foreign minister Lavrov to visit Pyongyang

A senior figure in the North Korean regime was en route to the US Wednesday, and Russia’s top diplomat was preparing to visit Pyongyang as diplomatic preparations for a historic nuclear summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un gathered pace.

General Kim Yong Chol, righthand man to the North Korean leader, will meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York, officials said.

Trump confirmed the general was on his way in a tweet and boasted that Washington would have a ‘great team’ for the talks aimed at resolving the nuclear standoff.

The US president still hopes the summit will take place on June 12 in Singapore.

“Meetings are currently taking place concerning Summit, and more. Kim Young (sic) Chol, the Vice Chairman of North Korea, heading now to New York. Solid response to my letter, thank you!” Trump wrote.

Moscow said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would travel to North Korea on Thursday to discuss Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

Last month, the North’s foreign minister Ri Yong Ho held rare talks with Lavrov in Moscow, part of a quickening effort to improve strained ties with global powers.

Russia was a member of sixnation talks held between 2003- 8 aimed at persuading the North to scrap its nuclear programme.

Japan is also keenly watching summit preparations. Trump will meet its Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Washington on June 7, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

“Since the president’s May 24 letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the North Koreans have been engaging,” she said.

“The United States continues to actively prepare for President Trump’s expected summit with leader Kim in Singapore.”

Kim Yong Chol was at Beijing airport Wednesday for his flight to New York.

He used the restricted VIP entrance, according to AFP journalists.

Pompeo’s spokeswoman said it would be the third meeting between Pompeo – who opened contacts with the isolated Pyongyang regime when he was still CIA director – and Kim.

“We’re still finalising exactly what these meetings will look like,” she said.

The trip is part of a f lurry of diplomacy before the on- again, off-again summit.

Trump brief ly scrapped the talks last week, citing ‘ open hostility’ from the North, but since then both sides have dialled down the rhetoric and the process appears to be back on track. — AFP