Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with a senior North Korean official in New York on Wednesday as the U.S. and North Korea continue to hammer out details about a potential summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a new report says.
Former military intelligence chief, and one of Kim’s closest aides, Kim Yong Chol met with Pompeo for an hour and a half over dinner, the Associated Press reports. The dinner comes just hours before the pair were scheduled to meet for the first time on Thursday morning.
They will spend the day sharing a “day full of meetings,” according to the White House.
The two men will discuss if it’s possible to rectify a potential summit between Trump and Kim.
Trump issued a letter to Kim Jong Un last week announcing that he was canceling the June 12 summit in Singapore with North Korea, citing the “tremendous anger and open hostility” from the rogue regime. However, Trump urged Kim to contact him if his behavior changed.
North Korea responded to Trump walking away from the negotiating table by saying the regime remained open to talking with the U.S. Additionally, North Korea demolished its nuclear site just before Trump’s letter was released, which was meant to show good faith to the U.S. prior to the summit.
Since then, the Trump administration has put in overtime working to revive the summit. For example, U.S. delegations met on Wednesday with North Korean officials in both Singapore and at the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
The White House said Wednesday that the goal is for the summit to occur on June 12 as originally planned.
“If it happens, we’ll certainly be ready,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday. “We’re going to continue to shoot for June 12th.”
