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NKOREA-US-CHINA-DIPLOMACY
Top N. Korean official in Beijing en route to Washington: reports
SEOUL, Jan 17, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A top North Korean official arrived in
Beijing Thursday, reports said, en route to Washington for talks with his US
counterpart ahead of an expected summit between President Donald Trump and
Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong Un.
Kim Yong Chol, Kim’s right-hand man and the counterpart to US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo in denuclearisation talks, was seen getting into a vehicle
at Beijing airport after flying in from Pyongyang, pictures showed.
He was due to leave the Chinese capital later Thursday for Washington, the
South’s Yonhap news agency reported.
He was expected to meet Pompeo on Friday before paying a courtesy call on
Trump, it said, and appeared to be carrying another letter from his leader
for the US commander in chief.
Kim’s trip comes as expectations grow for a second US-North Korean summit
after Kim Jong Un last week went to Beijing, long Pyongyang’s key ally, for
talks with President Xi Jinping.
The summit, which observers say will probably be held in either Vietnam or
Thailand, is expected despite a lack of progress in denuclearisation
negotiations.
At their first meeting in Singapore in June the two leaders signed a
vaguely worded document in which Kim pledged to work towards “the
denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.
But progress has since stalled with the two sides disagreeing over what
that means.
Pyongyang is seeking sanctions relief and rejects demands for what it calls
its “unilateral” disarmament, while Washington insists that the punitive
measures must stay in place until it gives up its nuclear arsenal.
Another North Korean official, Choe Son Hui, travelled through Beijing
earlier this week en route to Sweden, where she could meet the US special
representative on North Korea, Stephen Biegun.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1240 hrs