(Eagle News) – United States ambassador to the Philippines, Sung Kim, was called up from his assignment in the country to lead the US delegation to the border truce village in Panmunjom between North and South Korea on Sunday, May 28, in preparation for the planned historic summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
This was according to a report by the Washington Post.
Sung Kim, a former US ambassador to South Korea and former nuclear negotiator with the North, led the US delegation that met with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui.
The US ambassador is a South Korean-born American diplomat who was appointed Director of the Office of Korean Affairs and served in the position from August 2006 to July 2008. He was appointed Special Envoy for the Six-Party talks and accorded the rank of an ambassador after confirmation of nomination by the U.S. Senate on July 31, 2008.
The Washington Post report said that the US ambassador was called in from his post to lead the preparations for the historic US-North Korea summit, citing a “person familiar with the arrangements.”
“Crossing the line that separates the two Koreas, Sung Kim met with Choe Son Hui, the North Korean vice foreign minister, who said last week that Pyongyang was ‘reconsidering” the talks,’ the report said.
“The two officials know each other well — both were part of their respective delegations that negotiated the 2005 denuclearization agreement through the six-party framework,” it added.
US and North Korean officials met Sunday at a border truce village as preparations resumed for a high-stakes, high-drama summit that President Donald Trump said held “brilliant potential” for the North.
-Trump: “Brillian potential” for North Korea-
“I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day,” Trump said on Twitter.
“Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen!,” the president said, confirming that a US team “has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the summit” between himself and North Korean leader Kim.
His upbeat language contrasted sharply to that of only three days earlier, when Trump canceled the planned summit, citing “open hostility” from the North. An extraordinary flurry of diplomacy since then — much of it led by South Korea — appears to have put the meeting back on track.
Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Saturday at the Panmunjom border truce village, in a surprise bid to salvage the June 12 summit planned for Singapore.
Announcing the lower-level talks held Sunday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, “We continue to prepare for a meeting between the President and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.”
The United States currently has no ambassador to South Korea, even as it takes up one of the most delicate diplomatic challenges in years.
It remains far from clear how Trump and Kim might be able to bridge what appear to be vast differences in their expectations for what would be a historic meeting. But analysts on Sunday expressed increasing confidence that it will take place.
(with a report from Agence France Presse)