TEHRAN, May 27 - A group of American diplomats have traveled to North Korea to prepare the grounds for a possible summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jung-un, a new report states.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The delegation arrived in Pyongyang on Sunday, according to a report by the Washington Post, just days after Trump called off a proposed meeting with Kim.
The trip by the US delegation to Pyongyang is the latest development in a week of diplomatic ups and downs between the two sides over the prospects for the unprecedented summit.
The visit is also the strongest sign that Washington is committed to a meeting after Trump’s sudden pullout. It took Trump only one day to change his mind and say that a meeting was still possible.
According to the report, the US group was led by Sung Kim, a former US ambassador to South Korea who once was a former nuclear negotiator with the North.
Accompanying the former diplomat was Allison Hooker, the Korea expert on the White House National Security Council, as well as a Defense Department official, the report noted
In its first meeting, the group sat down for talks with Choe Son Hui, the North Korean vice foreign minister.
Earlier in the week, an American official had confirmed to Reuters that Sung Kim, who is currently the US ambassador to the Philippines, was going to lead an American delegation to meet North Korean officials.
On Saturday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said after a surprise meeting with Kim that the North Korean leader wanted the summit to take place.
The meetings were expected to continue on Monday and Tuesday, the report added.
Moon said that during their meeting, Kim reaffirmed commitment to "complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula .
North Korea dismantled its sole known nuclear test site on Thursday in an array of explosions. The Punggye-ri test facility has been the staging ground for all six of the North’s nuclear tests, including its latest and by far most powerful one in September last year, which Pyongyang claimed was an hydrogen bomb.
Source: Press TV
Your Comment