Kim Yong Chul’s trip to the US is the latest signal that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is serious about pursuing talks with President Donald Trump.
On his arrival in the US, Kim would be the most senior official to visit the United States since 2000, when Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok traveled to Washington to meet with then-President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office. Madeleine Albright, who was Secretary of State at the time, traveled to North Korea later that month.
Kim Yong Chul is a former head of North Korea’s Reconnaissance Bureau, an espionage and special operations organization. He is believed to have been involved in a torpedo attack that sank the South Korean warship Cheonan in 2010, killing 46 South Korean sailors.
His inclusion as part of the delegation from the North that attended the Pyeongchang Olympics in February raised eyebrows given his suspected role in the Cheonan’s sinking.
Kim’s latest trip comes as the United States and North Korea attempt to revive the summit between the countries’ two leader, a potential diplomatic triumph for nations technically still at war.
«He is probably one of the most up-to-date North Korean officials about what North Korea’s requirements are for the summit,» said Catherine Dill, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in Calilfornia.
