A team of US officials crossed into North Korea on Sunday to prepare for upcoming talks between President Trump and Kim Jong-un as South Korea’s leader said the despot is committed to “complete” denuclearization of the peninsula, according to reports.
Sung Kim, a former US ambassador to South Korea who has negotiated with the North over its nuclear arsenal, was called from his posting as envoy of the Philippines to head up the team, The Washington Post reported.
He entered the Hermit Kingdom with Allison Hooker, a Korean specialist on the National Security Council, and Randall Schriver, the assistant secretary of defense for East Asia who accompanied Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang earlier this month, the newspaper reported.
They are meeting with North Korean vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui, who referred to Vice President Pence last week as a “political dummy.”
Earlier, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said his counterpart in the North is committed to the meeting with Trump and getting rid of his arsenal after the two leaders met on Saturday.
“Chairman Kim and I have agreed that the June 12 summit should be held successfully, and that our quest for the Korean peninsula’s denuclearization and a perpetual peace regime should not be halted,” Moon said, Reuters reported.
Trump said his administration was still preparing for the meeting in Singapore.
“We’re doing very well in terms of the summit with North Korea,” Trump said Saturday at the White House. “It’s moving along very nicely. So we’re looking at June 12th in Singapore. That hasn’t changed. So we’ll see what happens.”
In a statement from North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, Kim expressed “his fixed will” on the possibility of meeting with Trump, Reuters reported.
After the two leaders agreed to the summit next month, Trump last week suddenly announced he was pulling out because of hostile comments made by Choe.
She not only called Pence a “political dummy” but suggested that Pyongyang was ready for a nuclear showdown if the negotiations with Washington failed.