North Korea spymaster to hand deliver letter to Donald Trump

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says negotiations are ‘moving in the right direction’ with North Korea.

North Korea Vice-Chairman Kim Yong-chol meets with United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York. Picture: AFP

North Korea’s former spymaster will make an unprecedented visit to Washington to hand deliver a letter from Kim Jong-un to Donald Trump as both leaders move closer to reviving their summit in Singapore.

The news comes as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said negotiations were ‘moving in the right direction’ and that he believed North Korea was seriously considering a very different path for its future.

“I believe they are contemplating a path forward where they can make a strategic shift,” Mr Pompeo said after meeting in New York with Kim Jong-chol, a trusted aide of Mr Kim and the former head of North Korea’s intelligence service.

“Our two countries face a pivotal moment in our relationship in which it could be nothing short of tragic to let this opportunity go to waste,” Mr Pompeo said.

He said Mr Kim was carrying a letter from his leader for the US president which he wanted to deliver personally.

No senior North Korean official has ever visited Washington or the white house. The two countries do not have diplomatic relations and no North Koreans are allowed to travel more than 25 miles from their United Nations offices in New York.

Mr Pompeo met with Mr Kim for just over 2 hours in New York today after hosting dinner for him last night overlooking the skyline of Manhattan.

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

Today Mr Pompeo said that although negotiations were proceeding well, it was a ‘difficult challenge’ and there was still ‘a lot of work to do’ before both sides could reach an agreement.

He said the challenge was to convince Kim Jong-un that his country’s future would be more secure without nuclear weapons than with them.

Mr Pompeo could not say whether the June 12 summit between Mr Trump and Mr Kim would proceed.

He said North Korea was fully aware that the US has demanded the ‘complete, verifiable and irreversible’ denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

“The proposed summit offers a historic opening for President Trump and Chairman Kim to boldly lead the United States and the DPRK into a new era of peace, prosperity and security,” Mr Pompeo said.

He said if North Korea agreed to denuclearise, then “we envisage a strong connected and secure prosperous North Korea that maintains its cultural heritage but is integrated into the community of nations.’

“It will take bold leadership from Kim Jong-un if we are to seize this once in a lifetime opportunity to change the course of the world,” he said.

“President Trump and I believe Chairman Kim is the type of leader who can make these kinds of decisions and that in the coming weeks and months we will have the opportunity to test whether this is the case.”

Mr Pompeo cautioned that the negotiations would take time and that both sides needed to be sure that something meaningful could be achieved at the summit before it went ahead.

“We’ve made real progress in the last 72 hours to setting the conditions … putting them (Trump and Kim) in a place where they can make real progress.”

Earlier Mr Trump said the negotiations were going well.

“We are doing very well with North Korea,” he said. “Our secretary of state is having very good meetings. I believe they will be coming down to Washington on Friday. A letter being delivered to me from Kim Jong Un. It is very important to them.”

“I think it will be very positive. We will see what happens. It is all a process. Hopefully we will have a meeting on the (June) 12th,”

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia