U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday that a top-level official of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is heading to New York for discussions about a possible meeting between U.S.-DPRK leaders.

Earlier yesterday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee, will fly to the United States today for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on a possible summit between the DPRK’s top leader Kim Jong Un and Trump.

Expectations are running high for the Kim-Trump summit to be held in Singapore on June 12 as scheduled.

Trump abruptly canceled his meeting with Kim last week, but the DPRK said it was ready to sit down with the U.S. side at any time.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a surprise summit with Kim at the border village Panmunjom last Saturday, confirming the willingness of both Kim and Trump to hold the first-ever DPRK-U.S. summit as scheduled.

Before the inter-Korean summit Saturday, Moon met with Trump in Washington to discuss the DPRK-U.S. summit.

South Korea said Monday that holding a three-way summit between the South, the DPRK and the United States will depend on the outcome of the DPRK-U.S. summit.

Media speculation arose that Moon may visit Singapore around that date to declare an end to the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice. The Korean Peninsula remains technically in a state of war under this agreement.

(Xinhua)