ZCZC
BFF-25
DIPLOMACY
N.Korea officials arrive in Beijing ahead of Trump-Kim summit: Yonhap
SEOUL, Feb 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Twelve North Korean officials —
including Kim Jong Un’s de-facto chief of staff — have arrived in Beijing
en-route to Vietnam ahead of a second scheduled summit between Kim and US
President Donald Trump, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said Friday.
The North Koreans were expected to board a plane bound for the Vietnamese
capital Hanoi, Yonhap said, with the high-stakes meeting now less than two
weeks away.
“A group of 12 North Koreans, including Kim Chang Son, were on the
boarding list” of a plane bound for Beijing, Yonhap said, citing a source in
the capital.
The identities of the 11 other officials were not reported.
Pyongyang has yet to provide any official confirmation of the Feb 27-28
summit, which will be the second time the two leaders come together following
their June 12 Singapore meeting.
That produced a vaguely-worded document in which Kim pledged to work
towards denuclearisation — with no hard timeline agreed.
In preparation for Hanoi, US envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun was last
week in Pyongyang for three days of talks with officials.
Biegun said they had been productive, but more dialogue was needed.
“We have some hard work to do with the DPRK between now and then,” Biegun
said, adding that he was “confident that if both sides stay committed we can
make real progress here”.
The US State Department said talks during Biegun’s trip explored Trump and
Kim’s “commitments of complete denuclearization, transforming US-DPRK
relations and building a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula”.
Earlier this week Vietnam’s foreign minister Pham Binh Minh visited
Pyongyang but no details on their discussions have been announced.
Experts say tangible progress on Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons will be
needed for the second summit if it is to avoid being dismissed as “reality
TV.”
Discussions on declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War could also have
been on the table, with Biegun last week saying Trump was “ready to end this
war”.
The three-year conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving
the two Koreas still technically at war, with the US keeping 28,500 troops in
the South.
Kim Chang Son was part of the team overseeing protocol in the run-up to
the Singapore summit.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1905HRS