DIPLOMACY 101

North Korea Pulled Out of Scheduled Meeting With Mike Pence

Pence was set to meet in South Korea with Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, and another top North Korean official.

North Korean officials pulled out of a scheduled meeting with Vice President Mike Pence at the last minute, his office said. The vice president was set to meet with Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, and another top official, Kim Yong Nam. The meeting was supposed to take place in secret during the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. “North Korea dangled a meeting in hopes of the Vice President softening his message, which would have ceded the world stage for their propaganda during the Olympics,” said Nick Ayers, Pence’s chief of staff. But outside observers were almost universal in their assessment that Pence did lose the propaganda skirmish anyway—especially after Pence “managed to disrespect every South Korean by not standing when the unified Korean team entered the Olympic stadium,” wrote Daily Beast analyst Gordon Chang.