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US Secretary Mike Pompeo and the North Korean Workers’ Party Vice Chairman and United Front Director Kim Yong-chol shake hands in New York on May 31. (Pompeo’s Twitter account)
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Pompeo likely to meet with Kim Yong-chol
Two days of high-level North Korea-US talks between Workers’ Party of Korea Vice Chairman and United Front Department Director Kim Yong-chol and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will reportedly be taking place on Nov. 7 and 8 in New York. Multiple diplomatic sources reported on Nov. 3 that the two sides had coordinated on the schedule. Kim and Pompeo are expected to have dinner together after the former’s arrival in New York on Nov. 7, with the main talks to take place the following day." When asked in a Nov. 2 interview with prominent Fox News anchor Sean Hannity about the current status of negotiations with the North, Pompeo replied, “I’ll have another set of conversations next week with my counterpart, the number two person.” The “number two person” appeared to be a reference to Kim Yong-chol. US President Donald Trump also described Kim Yong-chol as North Korea’s second-in-command to reporters after the two met at the White House on June 1. Kim’s US visit would be his second, following a previous one from late May to early June just before the June 12 North Korea-US summit. During his two-day stay in New York, Kim met with Pompeo and made a day trip to Washington, DC, where he delivered a letter from leader Kim Jong-un to Trump at the White House. Observers are now watching to see whether Kim Yong-chol arrives with another letter from Kim Jong-un for a “surprise meeting” with Trump. The North Korea-US meeting may last even longer than two days if North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui arrives with Kim Yong-chol on the US visit for additional working-level meetings with State Department Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Biegun. Biegun is also expected to accompany Pompeo on his New York visit. “The US is prepared for working-level talks at any time,” a diplomatic source in Washington, DC, said, adding that “it all depends on whether North Korea agrees.” The key issues discussed at the high-level talks are likely to include the date and location of a second North Korea-US summit – which the US has suggested will happen in “early 2018” – as well as the North’s denuclearization process and corresponding measures from the US, including the reduction of sanctions. The two sides are expected to square off in particular on the matter of loosening sanctions. On Nov. 1, Kim Jong-un denounced the international community’s sanctions as “hostile forces [. . .] foolishly rampaging with dastardly sanction machinations.” In remarks on Nov. 2, Pompeo stressed that sanctions would be removed only after the US has had “the opportunity to verify that [denuclearization] has taken place.” By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
