It wasn’t immediately known whether he carried a message from the North Korean leader as he did when he visited the White House in June before the first Trump-Kim summit in Singapore.
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images, FILEPresident Donald Trump gestures as he meets with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un at the start of their historic US-North Korea summit, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore, June 11, 2018.
“President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearization,” Sanders said in the statement. Sanders said they discussed “a second summit, which will take place near the end of February. The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date.”
Prior to meeting with the president, Kim Yong Chol met Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as the administration pushed ahead with plans for a second summit between Trump and Kim.
(MORE: Vice President Mike Pence: North Korea taken no ‘concrete steps’ ahead of reported meeting with nuclear negotiator )
The two men did not make any statements or answer reporters’ questions.
The meeting comes amid a stalemate in nuclear talks, with North Korea demanding the U.S. first ease sanctions and the U.S. saying there will be no relief until North Korea takes steps to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
(MORE: North Korea warns US over stalled nuclear negotiations )
Kim Yong Chol, the regime’s former spy chief, arrived in Washington late Thursday night, staying at a hotel just blocks north of the White House.
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesSecretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomes North Korean Vice-Chairman Kim Yong Chol to a meeting in Washington, Jan. 18, 2019.
Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol have met several times before, including in New York last May just before Trump and Kim Jong Un met in Singapore. In that meeting, Pompeo and his counterpart hashed out plans for a summit.
Friday’s meeting in Washington was key to taking the North Koreans’ temperature ahead of a second summit and see if such a meeting would be productive, a U.S. official told ABC News.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
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