Frantic diplomacy to salvage Kim-Trump summit

A senior North Korean official and America’s top diplomat had dinner in New York yesterday.

Mike Pompeo, left, and Kim Yong-chol, right, have dinner in New York. Picture: AFP

A senior North Korean official and America’s top diplomat have dined in New York — in the highest-level visit from the regime in 18 years — as Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un try to salvage a nuclear summit.

Kim Yong-chol, the former military intelligence chief and one of the North Korean leader’s closest aides, landed at JFK International Airport on an Air China flight from Beijing.

He had dinner for about 90 minutes with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The two planned a “day full of meetings” overnight, the White House said.

“Good working dinner with Kim Yong Chol in New York ­tonight,” Pompeo tweeted. “Steak, corn, and cheese on the menu.”

Their talks were aimed at determining whether a meeting ­between Mr Trump and Kim Jong-un, scheduled for June 12 but later cancelled by Mr Trump, could be restored, US officials said.

GRAPHIC: US-North Korea tensions

The talks come as preparations for the summit in Singapore were barrelling forward on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, despite uncertainty about whether it would occur, and when.

Other US teams were meeting with North Korean officials in Singapore and in the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarised Zone. “If it happens, we’ll certainly be ready,” White House spokes­woman Sarah Sanders said of the Singapore summit. On the date for the meeting, she added: “We’re going to continue to shoot for June 12th.”

Mr Trump and Kim Jong-un remained far apart on the crucial issue of North Korea’s nuclear disarmament, a senior South Korean minister said. Cho Myoung-gyon, the Unification Minister in Seoul, said: “The differences in stances remain quite significant.”

He did not rule out an eventual compromise, but added: “It will not be easy to narrow the gap.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday flew to Pyongyang to meet Kim Jong-un, moving to raise Moscow’s profile in the international efforts to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula.

“Come to Russia. We would be very happy to see you,” Mr Lavrov, seated across a table from Kim, said during a televised meeting.

North Korea’s flurry of diplomatic activity — following a spate of nuclear weapons and missile tests last year — suggested Kim was eager for sanctions relief and the international legitimacy the summit would provide. But doubts remained over whether Kim would relinquish his nuclear ­arsenal, which he might see as his only guarantee of survival.

Mr Trump announced Kim Yong-chol would be in New York for talks with Mr Pompeo in a tweet this week in which he said he had a “great team” working on the summit.

That was a shift from last week, when Mr Trump announced in an open letter to Kim Jong-un that he had decided to “terminate” the summit following a provocative statement from the North.

Mr Pompeo has travelled to Pyongyang twice in recent weeks for meetings with Kim Jong-un, and said there was a “shared understanding” between the two sides about the talks.

South Korean media speculated that Mr Pompeo could make a third trip to Pyongyang and that Kim Yong-chol was carrying a personal letter from Kim Jong-un and might push to travel to Washington to meet Mr Trump.

North Korea and the US are still technically at war and have no diplomatic ties.

Mr Trump views a summit as a legacy-defining opportunity to forge a nuclear deal, but he pledged to walk away if he believed North Korea was not serious about discussing dismantling its nuclear program.

After North Korea’s combative statements, there was debate ­inside the Trump administration about whether it marked a real turn to belligerence or a feint to see how far Kim Jong-un could push the US in the lead-up to the talks.

Mr Trump had mused that Kim’s “attitude” had changed after the North Korean leader’s surprise visit to China two weeks ago.

AP, The Times