U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he had a “good working dinner” with Kim Yong Chol, the right-hand man to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, ahead of more talks Thursday about a potential summit next month between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Pompeo tweeted a photo Wednesday night showing him shaking hands with Kim Yong Chol and another showing the men seated at a table in an apartment near United Nations headquarters in New York. He said the menu included steak, corn and cheese. Thursday morning, Pompeo said on Twitter that the “potential summit” between the U.S. and North Korean leaders presents North Korea “with a great opportunity to acheive security and economic prosperity.”
Kim Yong Chol is the highest-ranking North Korean official to visit the United States in 18 years.
Neither he nor Pompeo spoke to reporters as they arrived for their dinner meeting. The White House said the were scheduled to have a full day of talks on Thursday.
Discussions are also taking place in Panmunjom and Singapore.
But the White House says talks of the “total denuclearization of the peninsula” do not extend to U.S. weapons systems — a defense umbrella covering South Korea which includes nuclear-armed submarines and strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear bombs not based on the peninsula.
North Korea is estimated to have more than a dozen nuclear weapons.
Kim Yong Chol is the vice chairman of the powerful Central Committee and North Korea’s former spy chief. He and Pompeo have already met twice in Pyongyang.
The State Department says Pompeo will be in New York through Thursday.
An advance team, led by Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin, met with the North Korean team in Singapore on Wednesday, and expect to meet again on Thursday, according to the White House.
“We also have reports back from the DMZ,” spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. “The U.S. delegation, led by Ambassador Sung Kim, met with North Korean officials earlier today, as well. And their talks will continue. So far, the readout from these meetings has been positive, and we’ll continue to move forward in them.”
Trump sent a letter last week to Kim Jong Un, calling off the June 12 summit. He blamed what he calls “tremendous anger and open hostility” shown in a statement from Pyongyang. The U.S. president reversed his stance following a subsequent quick and conciliatory statement from North Korea expressing Kim’s “fixed will” for his meeting with Trump to occur.
“North Korea remains our most imminent threat,” Navy Admiral Harry Harris, the outgoing U.S. Pacific Command commander, said in Hawaii Wednesday. “A nuclear-capable North Korea with missiles that can reach the United States is unacceptable.”
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