Another Trump-Kim Summit In The Pipe

Following the historic June 12, 2018 summit in Singapore between the United States of America, USA President Donald Trump and North Korea or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, DPRK leader, Kim Jong-un, both sides have maintained contacts with a view to ridding the peninsula of nuclear weapons. Despite apparent lack of progress in follow-up discussions since the Singapore meeting, the US and DPRK have not given up efforts at strengthening the newfound entente between them.

It is against this backdrop that Stephen Biegun, the United States Special Representative for North Korea, arrived in the South Korean capital, Seoul, on February 3, 2019. He is meeting DPRK representatives to prepare for a second summit between leaders of the two countries later this month. Biegun met South Korea’s top nuclear envoy, Lee Do-hoon, to coordinate talks with the North Korean regime over denuclearization, Yonhap news agency reported. The US envoy was scheduled to meet Kim Hyok-chol, North Korea's new negotiator on February 4, 2019 in the border village of Panmunjom to finalize details of the summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong un, agency reports said.

The meetings are expected to iron out details and set the date and venue of the summit. Kim Hyok-chol was part of the delegation that accompanied former North Korean military intelligence chief, Kim Yong-chol, to Washington last month to meet President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The Vietna...