US and North Korea to hold talks on second Trump-Kim summit

North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, right, prepares to leave the Beijing International Airport in Beijing Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Kim arrived in Beijing on Thursday, reportedly en route to the United States for talks ahead of a possible second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Kyodo News via AP)
North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, right, prepares to leave the Beijing International Airport in Beijing Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Kim arrived in Beijing on Thursday, reportedly en route to the United States for talks ahead of a possible second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Kyodo News via AP)

WASHINGTON -- High-level talks aimed at finalizing a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are planned for this week in Washington, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to meet former North Korean spy chief Kim Yong Chol at a Washington hotel today. The meeting will likely be followed by a Kim visit to the White House, where he could meet with Trump, according to two officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Neither the U.S. nor North Korea has announced any meetings, although Kim Yong Chol arrived earlier Thursday in Beijing, where he was booked on a flight to the U.S., South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported. A motorcade that included the North Korean ambassador's car and a Chinese car with a sign reading "state guest" could be seen departing from a VIP area at the airport.

Trump has spoken several times of having a second summit with Kim early this year and has exchanged multiple letters with the North Korean despite little tangible progress on a vague denuclearization agreement reached at their first meeting in Singapore last June. Since then, several private analysts have published reports detailing continuing North Korean development of nuclear and missile technology.

At a conference of U.S. diplomats at the State Department on Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged the lack of progress. He called the Trump-Kim dialogue "promising" but stressed that "we still await concrete steps by North Korea to dismantle the nuclear weapons that threaten our people and our allies in the region."

A planned meeting between Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol in New York last November was called off abruptly. U.S. officials said at the time that North Korea had canceled the session.

A White House official, while not confirming plans for today's meeting, said "a lot of positive things" are happening related to North Korea's denuclearization. The official said Trump and Kim Jong Un had established a "good relationship" and that U.S.-North Korea conversations were continuing.

The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the two sides were "working to make progress" on the denuclearization goal and that Trump "looks forward to meeting Chairman Kim again at their second summit at a place and time yet to be determined."

International on 01/18/2019

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