Kim Jong Un's right-hand man was due in New York on Wednesday for talks with President Donald Trump's top diplomat as officials scramble to organize next month's historic nuclear summit between the North Korean and US leaders.
Kim Yong Chol, a veteran power player and a member of the young autocrat's inner circle, was due to arrive on an Air China flight from Beijing at 2:20 pm (1820 GMT), becoming the most senior North Korean official to visit the United States in 18 years.
He was due to meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was travelling up from Washington, for talks later Wednesday and on Thursday to finalize planning for a June 12 summit designed to end a nuclear stand-off that once threatened to plunge Korea back into war.
US and North Korean envoys have also been meeting in Panmunjong in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, and an American "pre-advance" team is in Singapore to make logistical arrangements for the rapidly planned meeting.
But with 13 days to go, the talks between General Kim and Pompeo, the former CIA chief who pioneered the latest round of face-to-face meetings, are the highest-level effort to stabilize the on-again, off-again process of getting two unpredictable leaders to the table. "If it takes place on June 12th, we'll certainly be prepared. If it for some reason takes place at a later date, we'll be prepared for that as well," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Trump suddenly but only briefly announced an cancellation of the summit after a North Korea issued a sharp rebuke of what it saw as threatening language for the US side, and Sanders warned talks could be postponed if Kim is not serious about disarmament.
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