Related Talks canceled after death

• tokyo» Talks between North Korean diplomats and former American officials, scheduled to be held in New York this week, have been canceled after allegations that the Pyongyang regime planned the attack that used a chemical weapon to kill leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother.

The plans for the “Track 1.5” talks were already hanging in the balance after North Korea launched a ballistic missile earlier this month and then found itself accused of assassinating Kim Jong Nam, the leader’s estranged half brother, in a busy Kuala Lumpur airport terminal on Feb. 13. But Malaysia’s announcement Friday that his death was caused by VX, a lethal nerve agent banned under the international Chemical Weapons Convention, proved the final straw.

The State Department decided not to issue the visas to the North Korean diplomats due to travel from Pyongyang to New York for the talks, according to three people with knowledge of the decision.

A State Department spokesperson declined to comment. “We do not discuss the details of individual visa cases,” she said.

The talks were being organized by Donald Zagoria of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, who served as a consultant on Asia during the Carter administration and has organized previous rounds of negotiations.