U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is about to hold high-level talks in Washington D.C. with North Korean senior official Kim Yong Chol on Thursday or Friday, and both sides are fine-tuning details, a South Korean newspaper said.
The North Korean official is likely to meet President Donald Trump as well, the Chosun Ilbo said on Tuesday, citing an unnamed diplomatic source familiar with the talks between the United States and North Korea.
Asked about the South Korean newspaper report, a State Department official said, "We don’t have any meetings to announce." The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United States is considering partially easing sanctions on North Korea in exchange for the isolated nation discarding, or sending abroad, its ICBMs, in addition to the adoption of a "nuclear freeze," the U.S. talks with the South Korean government have shown, the Chosun Ilbo said, citing the source.
"If North Korea accepts, it's a realizable scenario," it quoted the source as saying.
South Korea's presidential office directed questions to the foreign ministry, which did not have immediate comment.
This month, Trump said he had received a "great" letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and would probably meet him again in the not-too-distant future, as part of efforts to persuade him to give up his nuclear weapons.
Pompeo made several trips to Pyongyang last year, but the two sides have not rescheduled an abruptly cancelled November meeting between him and Kim Yong Chol that aimed at paving the way for a second summit.
Senior officials from the U.S. and North Korea are meeting in Washington sometime later this week, South Korean media reported on Tuesday.
Kim Yong-chol, considered the right-hand man of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is traveling to Washington to meet U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
No official announcement has been made yet either by Pyongyang or Washington.
According to a report published by The Chosunilbo in Seoul, the two sides – who have been engaged in bilateral negotiations since last year’s historic Trump-Kim summit – may discuss “the agenda and venue of Kim's next summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.”
Pompeo and Yong-chol may meet either on Jan. 17 or 18, the report added. Pompeo returned home late Monday night from his trip to the Middle East.
Reports added that Trump had sent a personal letter to the North's leader and that a proposed second Trump-Kim meeting is aimed for next month.
Washington and Seoul have been discussing potential U.S. measures to reciprocate North Korea’s possible steps toward denuclearization, such as dismantling the Yongbyon main nuclear complex or intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) aimed at the U.S., South Korean officials told Reuters.
In a recent interview, Pompeo said: “Reducing the threat from North Korea, whether that's by our success to date in stopping their missile testing, stopping their nuclear testing -- those are the important elements.”
