MIKE POMPEO/NEW YORK/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A senior North Korean official arrived in New York on Wednesday [5-30-18] in the highest-level official visit to the United States in 18 years, as President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un sought to salvage prospects for a high-stakes nuclear summit. Kim Yong Chol, the former military intelligence chief and one of the North Korean leader’s closest aides, landed mid-afternoon on an Air China flight from Beijing. Associated Press journalists saw the plane taxi down the tarmac before the North’s delegation disembarked at JFK International Airport. During his unusual visit to the U.S., Kim Yong Chol planned to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was traveling up from Washington. 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. The talks come as preparations for the highly anticipated summit in Singapore were barreling forward both in the U.S. and in Asia, despite lingering uncertainty about whether it will really occur, and when. 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.”
-Josh Lederman, Matthew Lee and Christopher Bodeen, “Top North Korean official lands in US for talks with Pompeo,” The Associated Press, May 30, 2018 12:50 pm