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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet in New York on Thursday with a senior aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the US State Department said.
US Foreign Minister Kim Yong Chol "will discuss progress on the four pillars of the joint declaration of the Singapore Summit, including the realization of the final and fully verified denuclearization," said a statement referring to the June meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korea chief Kim Jong Un.
Nearly five months after the summit, the two parties met in New York. Trump and Kim have pledged to work for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
The North Korean Foreign Minister warned that Pyongyang would "seriously" consider reviving its nuclear weapons program unless US sanctions were lifted.
In announcing the meeting with Kim Yong Chol, Pompeo said he hoped to "make real progress", including setting the stage for a second summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un.
Kim Yong Chol is a general, former senior intelligence officer and right-hand man of the North Korean leader.
He went to the White House at the diplomatic approach of the Singapore summit and has since been Pompeo's main interlocutor.
In mid-October, Pompeo discussed the possibility of a second summit, preceded by talks with Kim Yong Chol.
"We are working to find dates, times and places that will suit both leaders," said Pompeo at the time.
Despite the lack of visible progress in the talks, Trump has often spoken of détente with North Korea – a subject of raucous rhetoric and rising tensions at the beginning of his term – as an emblematic achievement of foreign policy.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (left) and North Korean number two Kim Yong Chol – photographed in July 2018 – will meet in New York
