North Korea Sends Top Aide to U.S. to Salvage Peace Summit

North Korea Sends Top Aide to U.S. to Salvage Peace Summit

It’s on. It’s off. It’s on again? That’s basically been the status of the summit between the U.S. and North Korea this past week. It looks like North Korea wants the summit to happen since dictator Kim Jong Un has sent an ex-spy chief to America to help revive the summit.

From Fox News:

Kim Yong Chol, Pyongyang’s longtime spy chief and a vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party, was spotted at Beijing Capital International Airport, where he boarded a flight to New York after first meeting with Chinese officials. As the Hermit Kingdom’s black operations chief, Kim has had a bloody hand in some of the rogue nation’s most notorious attacks on South Korea and even U.S. cyber targets.

President Trump, who abruptly canceled the June 12 summit in Singapore last week after hostile rhetoric from North Korea, has since opened the door for putting the meeting back on track. In a Tuesday morning tweet, Trump confirmed Kim’s pending visit.

“We have put a great team together for our talks with North Korea. Meetings are currently taking place concerning Summit, and more. Kim Young Chol, the Vice Chairman of North Korea, heading now to New York. Solid response to my letter, thank you!” Trump tweeted.

People spotted Choe Kang Il, one of the foreign ministry officials that works of North American issues, at the airport with Kim. We do not know for sure if he will travel with Kim to D.C.

The first flight went to D.C., but they changed it to New York City. The Washington Post pointed out that “the North Korean diplomats accredited to the United Nations are based in New York and are not allowed to travel outside the city without special dispensation, making it the easiest place for meetings to be held.”

Kim will become “the most senior official to visit the United States since 2000, when Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok traveled to Washington to meet with former US President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office.”

Kim is known as Kim Jong Un’s right hand man. He has sat with the dictator along with Kim Yo Jong, the dictator’s sister, at meetings with South Korea as the two countries have attempted to pave a road to peace and denuclearization.

He has a checkered past. From Fox News:

The U.S.-bound official is believed to have plotted the attack on Cheonan, a South Korean warship, and shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010 that left 46 sailors dead. He’s also accused of planting landmines across the Demilitarized Zone, according to Yonhap News Agency. Two South Korean soldiers have been severely wounded by landmines, though North Korea vehemently denied any involvement.

During Kim’s time in the intelligence agency, which is called the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea was suspected of carrying out the 2014 cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. The department is tasked with carrying out cyber warfare and intelligence operations against other countries.

The North Korean official was also blacklisted by the U.S. and South Korea for supporting the regime’s nuclear and missile programs in 2010 and 2016, Reuters reported. His visit this week would indicate a waiver was granted to Kim to come to the U.S.

[Featured image via YouTube]

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