WASHINGTON – A top North Korean official will meet with President Trump on Friday to deliver a letter from Kim Jong Un about a prospective summit that looks increasingly likely, officials said Thursday.

A week after canceling a summit scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, Trump said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's meetings with a North Korean delegation have gone "very well" and negotiations for a rescheduled meeting "are in good hands."

"A letter is going to be delivered to me from Kim Jong Un," Trump said. "So I look forward to seeing what's in the letter."

Trump, who spent most of the day on a fundraising trip in Texas, said that one meeting with Kim — if it comes off — probably wouldn't resolve all the disputes between the United States and North Korea.

"I want it to be meaningful," Trump said. "It doesn't mean it gets all done at one meeting. Maybe a second and third — and maybe we'll have none."

Pompeo's meetings in New York City included Kim Yong Chul, the top aide who will deliver Kim Jong Un's letter to the White House and speak with Trump.

Summit talks are "moving in the right direction," Pompeo said, though he added that the United States will insist on complete and verifiable denuclearization of North Korea's weapons programs — a demand Kim's government has balked at.

Asked whether officials would formally reschedule the summit after Trump's talk with the North Koreans on Friday, Pompeo said, "Don't know the answer to that."

Since Trump canceled the meeting with Kim in Singapore, the parties have tried to reschedule.

One potential dispute: the definition of "denuclearization." Trump and aides talked about the elimination of North Korea's weapons programs, including ballistic missiles; the North Koreans said "denuclearization" would also apply to U.S. weapons systems designed to protect the region.

More: Trump team seeks to nail down details of Kim Jong Un meeting

More: Top North Korean official headed to USA to discuss summit between Kim Jong Un, Trump

The North Koreans want the United States and its allies to lift economic sanctions that have crippled their economy.

Kim's government said it would never give up all its nuclear weapons, calling them essential to the regime's security, one of the claims that led to Trump's cancellation last week. Kim has long accused the United States of seeking his removal from power.

Gordon Chang, author of Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World, said Kim probably sees a meeting with Trump as a way to have economic sanctions removed, and Kim wants pictures of him shaking hands with a sitting American president, something no North Korean leader has done.

"This is legitimization," Chang said. "This is really important for the regime."

Giving Kim that kind of exposure means Trump better get a good deal, Chang said, one that includes having North Korea give up all nuclear weapons and missiles. Chang said Trump needs to secure "the strictest inspection regime on Earth."

In addition to Pompeo's meetings in New York, American and North Korean officials negotiated at meetings in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea.

Trump wants to keep the June 12 date, but the timing of a rescheduled summit is under discussion.

In a tweet, Pompeo said he made "good progress" in his talks, and "NorthKorea and the world would benefit greatly from the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."</s>Top American and North Korean officials are holding a full day of meetings in New York on Thursday aimed at deciding whether a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can be salvaged.

Ahead of the meetings, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the North's former military intelligence chief, Kim Yong Chol, had dinner Wednesday night. Kim had flown in from Beijing and Pompeo from Washington.

It's the highest-level official North Korean visit to the United States in 18 years.

Kim, the former military intelligence chief and one of the North Korean leader's closest aides, landed midafternoon Wednesday on an Air China flight from Beijing.

During his unusual visit, Kim had dinner for about an hour and a half with Pompeo. The two planned a "day full of meetings" Thursday, the White House said. Their talks will be aimed at determining whether a meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un, originally scheduled for June 12 but later canceled by Trump, can be restored, U.S. officials have said.

"Good working dinner with Kim Yong Chol in New York tonight," Pompeo tweeted Wednesday. "Steak, corn, and cheese on the menu."

The talks come as preparations for the highly anticipated summit in Singapore were barreling forward on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, despite lingering uncertainty about whether it will really occur, and when. As Kim and Pompeo met in New York, other U.S. teams were meeting with North Korean officials in Singapore and in the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone.

"If it happens, we'll certainly be ready," White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said of the Singapore summit. Regarding the date for the meeting, she added, "We're going to continue to shoot for June 12th."

North Korea's flurry of diplomatic activity following a torrid run in nuclear weapons and missile tests in 2017 suggests that Kim Jong Un is eager for sanctions relief to build his economy and the international legitimacy the summit with Trump would provide. But there are lingering doubts on whether Kim will ever fully relinquish his nuclear arsenal, which he may see as his only guarantee of survival in a region surrounded by enemies.

Pompeo, Trump's former CIA chief, has traveled to Pyongyang twice in recent weeks for meetings with Kim Jong Un, and has said there is a "shared understanding" between the two sides about what they hope to achieve in talks. South Korean media speculated that Pompeo could make a third trip to Pyongyang and that Kim Yong Chol was carrying a personal letter from Kim Jong Un and might push to travel to Washington to meet with Trump.

North Korea's mission to the United Nations in New York is its sole diplomatic presence in the United States. That suggests Kim might have chosen to first go to New York because it would make it easier for him to communicate with officials in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital. North Korea and the United States are still technically at war and have no diplomatic ties because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Trump views a summit as a legacy-defining opportunity to make the nuclear deal that has evaded others, but he pledged to walk away from the meeting if he believed the North wasn't serious about discussing dismantling its nuclear program.

After the North's combative statements, there was debate inside the Trump administration about whether it marked a real turn to belligerence or a feint to see how far Kim Jong Un could push the U.S. in the lead-up to the talks. Trump had mused that Kim's "attitude" had changed after the North Korean leader's surprise visit to China two weeks ago, suggesting China was pushing Kim away from the table. Trump's open letter to Kim last week canceling the summit, the aides said, was designed to pressure the North on the international stage for appearing to have cold feet.

White House officials maintain that Trump was hopeful the North was merely negotiating but that he was prepared for the letter to mark the end of the two-month flirtation. Instead, the officials said, it brought both sides to the table with increasing seriousness, as they work through myriad logistical and policy decisions to keep June 12 a viable option for the summit.

Kim Yong Chol is a vice chairman of the North Korean ruling party's central committee. The last official of his stature to visit the United States was Jo Myong Rok, the late first vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, who visited Washington in 2000, South Korea's Unification Ministry said.

The White House emphasized that it has remained in close contact with South Korean and Japanese officials as preparations for the talks continue. Sanders said Trump will host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan on June 7 to coordinate their thinking ahead of the summit. Trump hosted South Korean President Moon Jae-in last week.

Moon, who has lobbied hard for nuclear negotiations between Trump and Kim Jong Un, held a surprise meeting with the North Korean leader on Saturday in an effort to keep the summit alive.</s>North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol arrives at a hotel in New York Thomson Reuters By Rodrigo Campos and Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A senior North Korean official made a rare visit to the United States on Wednesday for talks about a possible summit between the leaders of the two countries but the sides appeared far apart on the central issue of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons.

Kim Yong Chol, a close aide of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy airport on a flight from Beijing. He was later seen entering a hotel in midtown Manhattan.

Kim Yong Chol is due to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss whether to go ahead with an unprecedented meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim.

The summit, originally planned for June 12 in Singapore, has been cast in doubt as the two countries - which have technically been at war since the 1950s - test each other's diplomatic mettle.

Trump last week called off the summit after North Korea expressed anger at comments by U.S. officials. But Trump later said he was reconsidering his position and U.S., North Korean and South Korean officials have gone ahead with summit preparations anyway.

The White House said on Wednesday that negotiations at the demilitarized zone along the border between North and South Korea for the summit were going well and that it expects the historic meeting to take place on June 12.

A U.S. official said negotiations about the summit's agenda have so far been slow going, and the two fundamental issues, the definition of North Korean denuclearization and whether both sides would take actions at the same time or separately, remained unsettled.

Trump has sworn not to allow North Korea to develop nuclear missiles that could hit the United States and wants North Korea to "denuclearize," or get rid of its nuclear arms.

But the leadership in Pyongyang is believed to regard nuclear weapons as crucial to its survival and has rejected unilaterally disarming.</s>President Trump huddled with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the White House on Wednesday to fine tune their strategy ahead of the top diplomat’s dinner meeting with Gen. Kim Yong-chol, the highest-ranking North Korean official to visit the U.S. in 18 years.

The dinner meeting in Manhattan was part of a string of talks taking place in New York, Panmunjom and Singapore to set up a likely June 12 summit between Mr. Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

The denuclearization of North Korea remains the focus of the negotiations and the impetus for the summit, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

“That’s what these ongoing conversations taking place now will be centered on, as well as this summit that would take place in Singapore,” she said. “And we’re going to continue — as long as that is part of the discussion, we’re going to continue to shoot for the June 12th and expect to do that.”

Gen. Kim, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling central committee and a former spy master, arrived Wednesday in New York on an Air China flight from Beijing.

The dinner meeting with Mr. Pompeo was to be followed by a series of meeting Thursday.

Gen. Kim is the right hand man of Mr. Kim, and he is considered a key player in the pre-summit negotiations.

Mr. Pompeo has spearheaded work on the summit, including two trips to Pyongyang.

Further boosting expectations for the historic summit were positive reports from the U.S. team in Panmunjom, a town in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. The team has been hammering out the parameters for a deal in talks with high-level North Korean officials.

“So far, the readout from these meetings has been positive, and we’ll continue to move forward in them,” said Mrs. Sanders.

Despite the progress, the two sides remain far from a final deal.

South Korea’s unification minister said a “huge” but not insurmountable gap remained between the U.S. and North Korea.

“It won’t be easy to narrow this gap and coordinate with each other, but our judgment is that it’s not impossible. Our assessment is that they will reach a compromise,” unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon said in a statement carried by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

He said that compromise, in Seoul’s view, should be “a package deal on the North’s denuclearization and guarantees of regime security.”

Mr. Trump has previously tried to assure Mr. Kim in public comments that the U.S. will guarantee his safety as part of any agreement in which Pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

The diplomacy and prep work for the summit have kicked into overdrive after Mr. Trump last week sent Mr. Kim a letter that canceled the summit over what he called increased “hostility” form the communist regime.

The short-lived cancellation reinvigorating the North’s willingness to negotiate, according to the White House.

Mr. Trump is pushing for a quick denuclearization of North Korea, which has nuclear weapons and long-range missiles believed capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.

But Mr. Kim wants a phased-in reduction of his nuclear capabilities in exchange for reciprocal aid and loosening of scansions, as well as guarantees the U.S. will not invade or try to topple his government.

Mr. Trump recently said that a phased-in approach might be necessary, but he continues to push for strict verification and a goal of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The talks about denuclearization of the peninsula is focused on North Korea and does not include U.S. nuclear assets in the region, such as on Navy vessels or Air Force bombers, said Mrs. Sanders.</s>Transcript for Trump says North Korean delegation will likely hand-deliver a letter from Kim Jong Un

A former North Korean intelligence chief currently sanctioned by the US. New York City. Kim young actual meeting with secretary of state Mike Pompeo. As the two tasked with negotiations ahead of the potential summit sat down for their high stakes meeting in New York. Back in DC the president remaining optimistic. The meetings have been very rose two the process. All of process we'll see and hopefully we'll have a meeting of the twelve. Today's visit to less than a week after the president's suddenly canceled a summit in a dramatic letter. And today he wasn't making any new promises a single summits will be enough or will even Hackett and. Does it mean against all done it like meeting maybe you have to have a second good. And maybe we'll have done. But. It's a good hand that I can. The trip to New York marks the third time the two top negotiators met. His visit to the US beginning last night dining on American beef and Pompeo showing off this city skyline. According to a senior State Department official motioning to a brighter future that could be possible for the regime. If they give up their nuclear weapons program something president trump says it must be done while the north Koreans want security and relief from crippling sanctions. Details they are hammering out for the summit's planned to begin and just under two weeks. The North Korean official who needed a waiver to travel to the United States is possibly heading to Washington tomorrow according to president from. Where he said he expects to receive a letter from Kim Jung man. Serena Marshall ABC news Washington.</s>May 31 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday he was confident talks with North Korean officials were moving in the right direction toward a summit and that a North Korean envoy will travel to Washington to deliver a personal letter from leader Kim Jong Un to President Donald Trump.

"Our two countries face a pivotal moment in our relationship in which it could be nothing short of tragic to let this opportunity go to waste," Pompeo said after meetings with North Korean vice chairman Kim Yong Chol in New York. (Reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Washington; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)</s>NEW YORK (AP) — Top American and North Korean officials plan a full day of meetings in New York aimed at deciding whether a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can be salvaged. Ahead of the meetings Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the North…</s>Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with North Korean Vice Chairman of the Central Committee Kim Yong Chol to discuss the prospect of reviving next month's summit. The leaders and their respective delegations met at a residence of the U.S. deputy permanent representative to the United Nations Thursday morning where they shook hands and sat at a table with their teams. Neither Kim or Pompeo answered shouted questions from reporters at the meeting.

The two arrived in New York on Wednesday in an attempt to salvage the highly-anticipated talks between President Trump and Kim Jong Un. CBS News' Kylie Atwood reports that this was the third meeting between Kim and Pompeo but their first meeting on U.S. soil.

The two enjoyed dinner Wednesday night and are expected to have a a day full of meetings on Thursday, according to the White House. The secretary tweeted photos of the evening, calling it a "good working dinner" where they enjoyed steak, corn and cheese. Department of State Press Secretary Heather Nauert told reporters before Thursday's meeting that Pompeo had said that the meetings "were great last night but there is still a lot of work to be done."

Pompeo previously told CBS' "Face the Nation" that North Korea could enjoy the benefits of American "know-how" and agricultural products should they fulfill their promises of complete and total denuclearization.

The secretary will brief reporters later Thursday afternoon on the progress of discussions with the top North Korean official.</s>Top American and North Korean officials are holding a full day of meetings in New York aimed at deciding whether a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can be salvaged.

Top American and North Korean officials are holding a full day of meetings in New York aimed at deciding whether a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can be salvaged.

North Korean and US officials holding full day of meetings to discuss summit

Kim, the former military intelligence chief and one of the North Korean leader’s closest aides, landed mid-afternoon on Wednesday on an Air China flight from Beijing. Good working dinner with Kim Yong Chol in New York tonight. Steak, corn, and cheese on the menu. pic.twitter.com/1pu4K3oym7 — Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) May 31, 2018 During his unusual visit, Kim had dinner for about an hour and a half with Mr Pompeo.

The two planned a “day full of meetings” on Thursday, the White House said. Their talks will be aimed at determining whether a meeting between Mr Trump and Kim Jong Un, originally scheduled for June 12 but later cancelled by the president, can be restored, US officials have said.

“Good working dinner with Kim Yong Chol in New York tonight,” Mr Pompeo tweeted on Wednesday. “Steak, corn, and cheese on the menu.” The talks come as preparations for the highly anticipated summit in Singapore were barrelling forward on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, despite lingering uncertainty about whether it will really occur, and when.

We have put a great team together for our talks with North Korea. Meetings are currently taking place concerning Summit, and more. Kim Young Chol, the Vice Chairman of North Korea, heading now to New York. Solid response to my letter, thank you! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2018 “If it happens, we’ll certainly be ready,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said of the Singapore summit.

Regarding the date for the meeting, she added: “We’re going to continue to shoot for June 12.” North Korea’s flurry of diplomatic activity following a torrid run in nuclear weapons and missile tests in 2017 suggests that Kim Jong Un is eager for sanctions relief to build his economy and the international legitimacy the summit with Mr Trump would provide.

However, there are lingering doubts on whether Kim will ever fully relinquish his nuclear arsenal, which he may see as his only guarantee of survival in a region surrounded by enemies. Mr Pompeo, Mr Trump’s former CIA chief, has travelled to Pyongyang twice in recent weeks for meetings with Kim Jong Un, and has said there is a “shared understanding” between the two sides about what they hope to achieve in talks.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, exits a residential building after meeting with Kim Yong Chol in New York (Julie Jacobson/AP) South Korean media speculated that Mr Pompeo could make a third trip to Pyongyang and that Kim Yong Chol was carrying a personal letter from Kim Jong Un and might push to travel to Washington to meet with Mr Trump. North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York is its sole diplomatic presence in the United States. That suggests Kim might have chosen to first go to New York because it would make it easier for him to communicate with officials in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.

North Korea and the United States are still technically at war and have no diplomatic ties because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. Mr Trump views a summit as a legacy-defining opportunity to make the nuclear deal that has evaded others, but he pledged to walk away from the meeting if he believed the North was not serious about discussing dismantling its nuclear programme.</s>President Donald Trump signaled on Thursday that he still expects to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore, saying he's 'hopeful' that the summit will happen as scheduled.

But he warned at the same time that just one sit-down with the communist country may not be enough to ensure it doesn't pose a nuclear threat.

The two leaders are expected to sit down to negotiate the terms of North Korea's withdrawal from an effort to build a nuclear weapon that could reach the United States.

Trump tweeted that the U.S. had been engaging in 'very good meetings with North Korea.'

He also said as he left Joint Base Andrews for Texas that he expects to receive a formal letter on Friday from Kim, carried by a delegation sent to Washington.

'I look forward to seeing what’s in the letter,' Trump said on the tarmac before boarding Air Force One.

'I think it will be very positive. The meetings have been very positive,' he said of talks that have proceeded in advance of the expected leader-to-leader discussion.

'Hopefully we will have a meeting on the 12th. That's going along very well,' he told reporters.

But the president cautioned against expecting too much from a single summit meeting with the hermit kingdom's despot.

'I want it to be meaningful. It doesn't mean it gets all done at one meeting. Maybe a second and third and maybe we'll have none,' he said.

'It's in good hands. That I can tell you.'

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a working dinner on Wednesday in New York City with top North Korean aide Kim Yong-chol.

The pair dined on 'steak, corn, and cheese,' according to the secretary of state.

The meeting took place as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Pyongyang for talks with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-ho.

Kim Yong-chol is the most senior North Korean official to visit the United States since 2000, when Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok traveled to Washington to meet with then-President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office.

He is conducting one of three sets of parallel talks in the U.S. aimed at salvaging the nuclear summit.
Top North Korean official Kim Yong-chol meets with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York City to discuss the summit set to be held in June.