May 31 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday he was confident talks with North Korean officials were moving in the right direction toward a summit and that a North Korean envoy will travel to Washington to deliver a personal letter from leader Kim Jong Un to President Donald Trump.

"Our two countries face a pivotal moment in our relationship in which it could be nothing short of tragic to let this opportunity go to waste," Pompeo said after meetings with North Korean vice chairman Kim Yong Chol in New York. (Reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Washington; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) </s> Senior North Korean and United States officials are expected to meet in Washington at the end of this week to discuss a second summit between the countries' leaders, South Korean media reported on Tuesday.

A diplomatic source in Seoul cited by Chosun Ilbo newspaper and Yonhap news agency indicated that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to meet with Kim Yong-chol on Thursday or Friday to discuss details of a second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump. </s> Seoul: Three North Korean officials, including its top envoy involved in negotiations with the United States, are booked on a flight to Washington from Beijing on Thursday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior North Korean official Kim Yong-chol are expected to meet on Thursday or Friday, Washington time, in the US capital to discuss a second summit between their leaders, CNN and South Korean media reported citing sources familiar with the issue.

A meeting could mean the two sides are nearing a compromise after months of standoff over how to move forward in ending North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.

Kim Yong-chol, along with North Korea's vice foreign minister Choe Son-hui, and a third official, have reservations on a United Airlines flight leaving Beijing on Thursday evening for Washington, Yonhap said on Wednesday, citing an unidentified Chinese airport official. </s> SEOUL (Reuters) - Three North Korean officials, including its top envoy involved in negotiations with the United States, are booked on a flight to Washington from Beijing on Thursday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol are expected to meet on Thursday or Friday in the U.S. capital to discuss a second summit between their leaders, CNN and South Korean media reported citing sources familiar with the issue.

A meeting could mean the two sides are nearing a compromise after months of standoff over how to move forward in ending North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

Kim Yong Chol, along with North Korea’s vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui, and a third official, have reservations on a United Airlines flight leaving Beijing on Thursday evening for Washington, Yonhap said on Wednesday, citing an unidentified Chinese airport official.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department, asked earlier about the possibility of the top officials from the two sides getting together, said: “We have no meetings to announce.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to work towards denuclearization at a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore in June, but there has been little significant progress since.

Pompeo planned to meet his counterpart last November, but the talks were called off at the last minute.

Contact was resumed after Kim Jong Un delivered a New Year speech in which he said he was willing to meet Trump “at any time,” South Korea’s ambassador to the United States, Cho Yoon-je, told reporters last week. </s> North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol arrives at a hotel in New York Thomson Reuters By Rodrigo Campos and Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A senior North Korean official made a rare visit to the United States on Wednesday for talks about a possible summit between the leaders of the two countries but the sides appeared far apart on the central issue of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons.

Kim Yong Chol, a close aide of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy airport on a flight from Beijing. He was later seen entering a hotel in midtown Manhattan.

Kim Yong Chol is due to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss whether to go ahead with an unprecedented meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim.

The summit, originally planned for June 12 in Singapore, has been cast in doubt as the two countries - which have technically been at war since the 1950s - test each other's diplomatic mettle.

Trump last week called off the summit after North Korea expressed anger at comments by U.S. officials. But Trump later said he was reconsidering his position and U.S., North Korean and South Korean officials have gone ahead with summit preparations anyway.

The White House said on Wednesday that negotiations at the demilitarized zone along the border between North and South Korea for the summit were going well and that it expects the historic meeting to take place on June 12.

A U.S. official said negotiations about the summit's agenda have so far been slow going, and the two fundamental issues, the definition of North Korean denuclearization and whether both sides would take actions at the same time or separately, remained unsettled.

Trump has sworn not to allow North Korea to develop nuclear missiles that could hit the United States and wants North Korea to "denuclearize," or get rid of its nuclear arms.

But the leadership in Pyongyang is believed to regard nuclear weapons as crucial to its survival and has rejected unilaterally disarming. </s> President Trump huddled with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the White House on Wednesday to fine tune their strategy ahead of the top diplomat’s dinner meeting with Gen. Kim Yong-chol, the highest-ranking North Korean official to visit the U.S. in 18 years.

The dinner meeting in Manhattan was part of a string of talks taking place in New York, Panmunjom and Singapore to set up a likely June 12 summit between Mr. Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

The denuclearization of North Korea remains the focus of the negotiations and the impetus for the summit, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

“That’s what these ongoing conversations taking place now will be centered on, as well as this summit that would take place in Singapore,” she said. “And we’re going to continue — as long as that is part of the discussion, we’re going to continue to shoot for the June 12th and expect to do that.”

Gen. Kim, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling central committee and a former spy master, arrived Wednesday in New York on an Air China flight from Beijing.

The dinner meeting with Mr. Pompeo was to be followed by a series of meeting Thursday.

Gen. Kim is the right hand man of Mr. Kim, and he is considered a key player in the pre-summit negotiations.

Mr. Pompeo has spearheaded work on the summit, including two trips to Pyongyang.

Further boosting expectations for the historic summit were positive reports from the U.S. team in Panmunjom, a town in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. The team has been hammering out the parameters for a deal in talks with high-level North Korean officials.

“So far, the readout from these meetings has been positive, and we’ll continue to move forward in them,” said Mrs. Sanders.

Despite the progress, the two sides remain far from a final deal.

South Korea’s unification minister said a “huge” but not insurmountable gap remained between the U.S. and North Korea.

“It won’t be easy to narrow this gap and coordinate with each other, but our judgment is that it’s not impossible. Our assessment is that they will reach a compromise,” unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon said in a statement carried by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

He said that compromise, in Seoul’s view, should be “a package deal on the North’s denuclearization and guarantees of regime security.”

Mr. Trump has previously tried to assure Mr. Kim in public comments that the U.S. will guarantee his safety as part of any agreement in which Pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

The diplomacy and prep work for the summit have kicked into overdrive after Mr. Trump last week sent Mr. Kim a letter that canceled the summit over what he called increased “hostility” form the communist regime.

The short-lived cancellation reinvigorating the North’s willingness to negotiate, according to the White House.

Mr. Trump is pushing for a quick denuclearization of North Korea, which has nuclear weapons and long-range missiles believed capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.

But Mr. Kim wants a phased-in reduction of his nuclear capabilities in exchange for reciprocal aid and loosening of scansions, as well as guarantees the U.S. will not invade or try to topple his government.

Mr. Trump recently said that a phased-in approach might be necessary, but he continues to push for strict verification and a goal of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The talks about denuclearization of the peninsula is focused on North Korea and does not include U.S. nuclear assets in the region, such as on Navy vessels or Air Force bombers, said Mrs. Sanders. </s> NEW YORK (AP) — Top American and North Korean officials plan a full day of meetings in New York aimed at deciding whether a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can be salvaged. Ahead of the meetings Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the North… </s> Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with North Korean Vice Chairman of the Central Committee Kim Yong Chol to discuss the prospect of reviving next month's summit. The leaders and their respective delegations met at a residence of the U.S. deputy permanent representative to the United Nations Thursday morning where they shook hands and sat at a table with their teams. Neither Kim or Pompeo answered shouted questions from reporters at the meeting.

The two arrived in New York on Wednesday in an attempt to salvage the highly-anticipated talks between President Trump and Kim Jong Un. CBS News' Kylie Atwood reports that this was the third meeting between Kim and Pompeo but their first meeting on U.S. soil.

The two enjoyed dinner Wednesday night and are expected to have a a day full of meetings on Thursday, according to the White House. The secretary tweeted photos of the evening, calling it a "good working dinner" where they enjoyed steak, corn and cheese. Department of State Press Secretary Heather Nauert told reporters before Thursday's meeting that Pompeo had said that the meetings "were great last night but there is still a lot of work to be done."

Pompeo previously told CBS' "Face the Nation" that North Korea could enjoy the benefits of American "know-how" and agricultural products should they fulfill their promises of complete and total denuclearization.

The secretary will brief reporters later Thursday afternoon on the progress of discussions with the top North Korean official. </s> Seoul: The United States and North Korea plan to hold high-level talks in Washington this week to discuss a second summit of their leaders, following a prolonged stalemate in nuclear talks, according to an unnamed diplomatic source.

The meeting, led by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, would happen on Thursday or Friday, Washington time, South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo said, citing an unnamed source.

Both sides are expected to finalise the date and location of a second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and the North's envoy is likely to meet Trump, the paper said.

Asked about the report, a State Department official said: "We don't have any meetings to announce."
Top North Korean official Kim Yong-chol meets with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York City to discuss the summit set to be held in June.