NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/SUMMIT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Wednesday [6-5-19] hesitated to criticize the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un amid muddied reports that some of the country’s top representatives in nuclear talks with the U.S. had been purged or killed. Last week, a South Korean newspaper reported that Kim Yong Chol, North Korea’s former spy chief and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s counterpart, had been sentenced to hard labor after February’s nuclear summit between the two countries failed to yield an agreement. According to the paper, Kim Yong Chol had been purged from the regime, an undoubtedly lighter sentence than nuclear envoy Kim Hyok Chol and four other diplomats who were reportedly executed over the breakdown of nuclear talks. Both men had been involved in talks about the summit between Trump and Kim, and Kim Yong Chol even visited the White House in January. But the reports, which are always tricky to verify due to North Korea’s tight control over information, were thrown into doubt when Kim Yong Chol appeared in public Monday at a theater event with the dictator, according to state media.”
–Caitlin Oprysko, “Trump gives Kim Jong Un the benefit of the doubt on reported North Korean executions,” Politico, June 5, 2019 1:22 pm