Report: North Korea’s Top Envoy Arrives in Beijing

January 17, 2019, 2:26 AM

FILE - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, second from left, is greeted by North Korean Director of the United Front Department Kim Yong Chol, center, and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, second from right, as he arrives in Pyongyang, July 6, 2018. — FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, second from left, is greeted by North Korean Director of the United Front Department Kim Yong Chol, center, and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, second from right, as he arrives in Pyongyang, July 6, 2018.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA —

North Korea’s top envoy involved in talks with the United States arrived in Beijing Thursday and is thought to be en route to Washington, South Korean news agency Yonhap said.

U.S. and South Korean media previously quoted unidentified sources as saying U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean official Kim Yong Chol were expected to meet in the U.S. capital Friday to discuss a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim arrived at Beijing airport Thursday on an Air Koryo flight from Pyongyang and was met by North Korea’s ambassador to China, Yonhap said. He is expected to board a flight to Washington in the evening, the news agency said.

Pompeo had planned to meet his North Korean counterpart to discuss a second summit last November, but the meeting was postponed.

FILE - Kim Yong Chol, left, former North Korean military intelligence chief and one of leader Kim Jong Un's closest aides, shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a meeting, May 31, 2018, in New York. — FILE – Kim Yong Chol, left, former North Korean military intelligence chief and one of leader Kim Jong Un's closest aides, shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a meeting, May 31, 2018, in New York.

Kim Yong Chol was last in Washington in June, when he delivered a letter from Kim Jong Un to Trump that opened the way for an unprecedented meeting between the leaders of the two countries in Singapore June 12.

CNN quoted a source familiar with U.S.-North Korea talks as saying that Kim Yong Chol would be carrying a new letter from Kim Jong Un to Trump in Washington.

Chinese and South Korean envoys on Korean Peninsula affairs are meeting in Seoul Thursday, the South’s foreign ministry said. Kong Xuanyou and Lee Do-Hoon are expected to discuss ways to achieve complete denuclearization and peace on the peninsula, as well as an expected second summit of U.S. and North Korean leaders.

In Singapore last year, Kim Jong Un pledged to work towards denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, but there has been little significant progress since.

Contact was resumed after the North Korean leader delivered a New Year speech in which he said he was willing to meet Trump “at any time,” South Korea’s ambassador to the United States, Cho Yoon-je, told reporters last week.

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