North Korea’s Kim Yong-chol heads to U.S. for talks
ONE of North Korea’s most senior officials is travelling to New York, as preparations for a planned summit gather pace.
Former intelligence chief Gen Kim Yong-chol is the most senior North Korean official to visit the United States (U.S.) since 2000.
President Donald Trump confirmed the news yesterday, saying he had put “a great team together” for the talks.
The proposed meeting with Kim Jong-un was thrown into doubt after Mr Trump announced he was pulling out last week.
But both sides have been working to get the summit - scheduled for 12 June in Singapore - back on track. It would be the first time a North Korean leader has met a sitting American president.
The introduction of Gen Kim to negotiations is significant, as it underlines North Korea’s desire to ensure the talks go ahead.
A former spy chief, he has been part of recent highprofile diplomatic overtures by the North.
South Korean news agency Yonhap had reported earlier yesterday that Gen Kim was due to fly to New York today, after speaking with Chinese officials in Beijing.
Confirming the news, Mr Trump said that meetings were under way about the summit “and more”.
Gen Kim, 72, is a controversial figure in neighbouring South Korea, and previously served as a negotiator in inter-korean talks.
During his time as a military intelligence head, he was accused of being behind attacks on South Korean targets, including the torpedoing of a South Korea warship which killed 46 seamen, as well as the 2014 hacking of Sony Pictures.
As a result of these inci- dents, the United States (U.S.) imposed personal sanctions on Gen Kim in 2010 and 2015.
Despite reportedly being punished for an “overbearing attitude” in 2016, he has continued to hold senior posts in the army and party, and was the head of North Korea’s delegation to the closing ceremony of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea. The influential figure is regularly seen at the North Korean leader’s side and has attended meetings with the leaders of China and South Korea, and met United States (U.S.) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang.
THE Gambia is set to benefit from being designated as a ‘priority country for French official development assistance’.
The Gambian president, Adama Barrow recently appealed to international donors in Brussels, asking them to fill a $1.6 billion financing gap towards the implementation of the country’s National Development Plan (NDP). The European Union, other development partners and the Gambian government held a conference in Brussels to discuss international support of The Gambia in its democratic transition since ex-president Yahya Jammeh was ousted from power in early 2017. France, which attended the conference, announced a $58 million financing package that will run until 2022. The foreign affairs minister, J-baptiste Leymone also announced that France would reopen its embassy in Gambia’s capital, Banjul.
The diplomatic office was closed in November 2013, with France explaining that Jammeh’s regime was not open to any productive collaboration, making the office redundant and costly