U.S. President Donald Trump will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a second summit “near the end of February,” the White House announced Friday amid Washington’s continued push to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
Trump earlier Friday met with Kim Yong-chol, a senior North Korean official widely regarded as Kim’s right-hand man, at the White House for more than an hour.
The president “looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
It is unclear from Sanders’ statement if the location has been decided and is being kept under wraps for now, or if it is still under consideration. Multiple reports have suggested Vietnam, Hawaii and Thailand have been under consideration.
Trump and Kim held a historic first summit in Singapore last June, reaching an agreement critics have said is overly vague and has failed to produce meaningful progress in ridding North Korea of its nuclear arsenal.
Prior to coming to the White House, Kim Yong-chol had met Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for talks aimed at jumpstarting the stalled negotiations. He previously came to the White House in June to cement details for the Singapore summit.
Neither Kim nor Pompeo took questions from reporters.
North Korea has called on Washington to begin lifting sanctions it has imposed unilaterally, and other international sanctions it has worked at the UN to implement — a demand the U.S. has rejected until it achieves the full and verifiable denuclearization of the North.
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