US President Donald Trump met North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol at the White House on Friday, who delivered a personal letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the president.
The content of the letter was not immediately known, but according to the Wall Street Journal, Kim Jong-un is believed to have expressed interest in a summit meeting with Trump. It has been scheduled for June 12 in Singapore.
The North Korean envoy, a close confidant of Kim Jong-un, arrived in Washington after two days of talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York.
Kim Yong Chul, who till now was under US sanctions, is likely to stay in the country till Saturday. The status of his sanctions was not immediately clear.
It was after 18 years that a North Korean official met a US president in the Oval Office.
North Korean military leader Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok delivered a letter to then US president Bill Clinton at the White House in late 2000. Clinton was the first American president to meet a Pyongyang official since the 1950-55 Korean war. PTI