The North Korean government used an American businessman in an effort to set up a secret back channel with the Trump administration through White House senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The effort occurred last summer, the New York Times reported Sunday.
Gabriel Schulze, a financier who lives in Singapore and has ties to North Korea, contacted Kushner with the message that said a top North Korean official wanted to talk about a possible meeting between leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump.
Kushner referred Schulze to then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo — not then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Pompeo has since replaced Tillerson as the nation’s top diplomat after Trump fired him in March.
Pompeo then met with North Korean officials, which set in motion events that led to the historic summit between Trump and Kim in Singapore last week.
The White House and CIA declined to comment, and Schulze told the Times: “I do not discuss the nature of my business or personal relationships.”
The outlet reported in April that China also used Kushner as an intermediary between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last year.
The Trump-Kim summit ended with an agreement that North Korea would denuclearize, though no time table or definitive actions were agreed upon.
