Top North Korean negotiator’s visit to Washington fuels hopes of another summit

KIM JONG-UN’S top negotiator is expected to travel to Washington this week in what is being seen as a sign that momentum for a second summit between the North Korean leader and Donald Trump, the US president, is building. Kim Yong Chol, Pyongyang’s former spymaster, is likely to meet Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, and possibly Mr Trump himself, reported CNN yesterday.

“A lot of positive things are happening. He [Mr Trump] and Chairman Kim have established a good relationship, and conversations between the United States and North Korea continue,” a White House spokesman told the news channel.

News of Mr Kim’s planned journey to the US had been reported earlier in the week by the South Korean press. According to the Yonhap newswire, he and two other North Korean officials have confirmed flights from Beijing to Washington tomorrow evening.

Mr Kim, one of Kim Jong-un’s most trusted advisers, also visited the White House last year, delivering an oversized envelope with a letter from the North Korean leader less than two weeks before his first historic summit with Mr Trump in Singapore in June.

The official had been due to meet with Mr Pompeo in the US in November, but their plans were cancelled amid an ongoing standoff between Washington and Pyongyang over the progress of nuclear disarmament on the Korean peninsula. Mr Kim and Mr Trump agreed in Singapore in vague terms to move towards the complete denuclearisation of the peninsula, but talks have since stalled.

It is hoped that this week’s delegation can forge a path towards a second summit to break the impasse.