PROGRESS

U.S. Officials Cross Into North Korea for Summit Talks

As both sides signal a desire to revive the on-again, off-again meeting.

A delegation of U.S. officials crossed into North Korea on Sunday to begin preparations for the on-again, off-again June 12 summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, the president tweeted on Sunday, confirming earlier reports. The move came as both Trump and Kim signaled a desire for the meeting to go on as planned despite Trump’s abrupt cancellation last week. Sung Kim, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and former nuclear negotiator with the North, is leading talks on the ground in North Korea, according to a source cited by The Washington Post. He reportedly crossed the border separating the two Koreas on Sunday to meet with North Korean’s vice foreign minister. Allison Hooker, the National Security Council’s Korea specialist, and Randall Schriver, the assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, are also in Seoul ahead of the summit. The move comes after Kim told South Korea’s Moon Jae-in on Saturday that he’s ready to commit to “complete denuclearization,” while Trump said renewed U.S.-North Korea talks were “moving along very nicely.”