US delegation holds talks with North Korean officials

The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, US.-An American delegation met with North Koreans officials in the Demilitarized Zone on Sunday as planning seemed to move ahead for the on-off-perhaps-onagain summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, meanwhile, gave details about his surprise meeting Saturday with Kim in the Panmunjom truce village, saying Kim had committed to sitting down with Trump and to a “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tapped veteran American diplomat Sung Kim to handle pre-summit negotiations.

On a separate but complementary track is the CIA team Pompeo set up last year when he headed the spy agency. And on a third track is a White House logistical group sent to Singapore this weekend to prepare in case the summit takes place. It was led by Joe Hagin, White House deputy chief of staff for operations.

Kim, the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, also served as ambassador to South Korea and was part of the U.S. negotiating team that last held substantive denuclearization talks with North Korea during the George W.

 Bush administration in 2005. The developments, after last week’s whirlwind of uncertainty, appeared to flesh out Trump’s assertion that the June 12 summit in Singapore that he canceled Thursday could take place as first scheduled. Trump told reporters Saturday that there was “a lot of goodwill,” that the original plan was still being considered and that “that hasn’t changed.”