North Korean delegation led by WPK vice chairman arrives in New York for two-day visit

North Korean vice chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and United Front Department director Kim Yong-chol (right) is escorted to his accommodations at the Millennium Hilton New York One UN Plaza in Midtown, Manhattan on May 30. Kim Yong-chol’s delegation is being seen as the de facto envoy for Kim Jong-un. Kim Yong-chol is the first high-level North Korean official to visit the US since Jo Myong-rok, First Vice Chairman of the National Defense Commission, met with President Bill Clinton in Oct. 2000. (Yonhap News)

Kim Yong-chol to have dinner and day of talks with Pompeo

A six-member North Korean delegation led by Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) vice chairman and United Front Department director Kim Yong-chol arrived in New York City on the afternoon of May 30 for a two-day US visit.

Air China Flight CA981, the aircraft carrying Kim’s delegation, touched down on the runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport at around 1:47 pm that day. Six to seven black sedans and police vehicles could be seen from a distance approaching the apron for the aircraft’s arrival, prompting speculation that the North Korean delegation members might proceed directly to their hotel while avoiding the press.

Dozens of reporters from around the world camped out at the first-floor arrival gate or the VIP corridor to one side of the second-floor departure gate. Around 30 minutes later, the North Korean delegation left the apron escorted by police vehicles in front and back.

“An agreement was reached with the State Department to have the delegation met directly at the apron,” explained a senior official with the North Korean mission to the UN who was at the scene. With escorts directly from the apron considered a special form of protocol typically provided to foreign heads of state, the gestures showed the State Department’s particular emphasis on protocol with Kim. The gesture also appeared to reflect Kim’s status as a de facto special envoy for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The North Korea delegation reportedly consisted of six people, including Kim Yong-chol and Choe Kang-il. An official with North Korea’s UN mission expressed high hopes for the “historic moment.” Indeed, the US government has not granted visas recently to any North Koreans apart from those attending the UN General Assembly or meetings by multilateral organizations.

After leaving the airport, Kim arrived roughly an hour later at 3:30 pm at the Millennium Hilton New York One UN Plaza in midtown Manhattan, his accommodation during his visit. The delegation members proceeded directly into the hotel without responding to the flurry of questions from reporters.

The White House reported that Kim was scheduled to meet for dinner with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at an undisclosed location in Manhattan later that evening. The announcement was made in a regular briefing that day by White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who went on to say that Kim and Pompeo would be having talks on May 31.

The high-level talks in New York on May 31 could well decide how smoothly things proceed for a scheduled North Korea-US summit in Singapore on June 12 – and how successful the outcome is.

North Korean vice chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and United Front Department director Kim Yong-chol (right) is escorted to his accommodations at the Millennium Hilton New York One UN Plaza in Midtown, Manhattan on May 30.

Kim’s meeting with Trump depends on success of talks with Pompeo

The main focus of attention for Kim’s visit is whether he will be meeting with US President Donald Trump. According to the principle of reciprocity, it would fit with diplomatic convention for Kim to meet with Trump after the latter’s special envoy Pompeo met twice in North Korea with Kim Jong-un. On that basis, it would be a natural step for Kim Yong-chol to meet with Trump in his faculty as an apparent special envoy for the North Korean leader.

The announcement schedule suggests a meeting with Trump is unlikely, however. Unless Kim opts to extend his US stay, he is scheduled to board an airplane bound for Beijing at 4:50 pm on May 31 after finishing his New York talks with Pompeo. With a round trip between New York and Washington, DC, taking longer than a trip from Seoul to Daegu and back, the likelihood of Kim stopping in the capital appears slim.

In the end, the question of whether to meet with Kim remains up to Trump. If he judges the results of the high-level New York talks satisfactory, he could extend a surprise invitation for Kim to come to the White House. In such a case, the State Department would merely have to extend his stay period and permit his journey.

When asked why Kim had not been granted an opportunity to meet with Trump as Pompeo had met with Kim Jong-un during his Pyongyang visit, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert avoided a direct response, saying only that Pompeo “looks forward to his meetings” with Kim in New York. The question of whether Kim meets with Trump is expected to be a touchstone for estimating the success of the high-level talks.

If the talks are successful, Trump could also travel to New York to meet with Kim at Trump Tower. A White House invitation for a senior official from a hostile power like North Korea would likely cause serious political headaches for Trump; a meeting at Trump Tower would carry less of an official stamp than a White House meeting, and consequently less of a burden. Trump has often stayed at his home and office on the 66th to 68th floors of Trump Tower since arriving in the White House.

So far, the White House and State Department have both offered positive appraisals of the discussions with North Korea. On May 29, Huckabee Sanders called the North Korea-US meetings this week “certainly signs of process,” adding that Trump saw the current discussions as proceeding very well.

“The United States continues to actively prepare for President Trump's expected summit with leader Kim in Singapore,” she said, adding that it would also actively prepare for the event if it were held later than that for any reason.

Huckabee Sanders’s remarks did not rule out the possibility that the summit could be delayed due to a lack of preparation time or technical factors. Nauert also noted that three different sets of talks were taking place in New York, Panmunjeom, and Singapore to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, adding that there had been “a tremendous amount of progress over the past few days alone.”

Kim Yong-chol and Pompeo appear set for last-minute coordination to reflect on the outcome of previous talks at the Unification House (Tongilgak) in Panmunjeom on May 27 and 30 by US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Song-hui.

By Yi Yong-in, reporting from New York

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