The White House said on Tuesday that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Washington on June 7, ahead of the expected meeting between the leaders of Washington and Pyongyang.
The announcement came one day after Trump spoke over phone with Abe, with the two agreeing to meet at the White House before a possible meeting between Trump and top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un.?
White House Spokesperson Sarah Sanders also said in a tweet that Washington continued to "actively prepare" for the expected summit.?
Trump tweeted on Tuesday morning that a senior official of the DPRK is heading to New York for talks about the meeting between him and Kim.
Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee, was sent for the preparatory talks with the US side on the Trump-Kim summit, reports said.?
According to Chung Sung-yoon, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, Kim Yong Chol has long been a right-hand man to the DPRK's leader, playing a front-seat role during recent rounds of diplomacy aimed at ending the nuclear stalemate on the Korean Peninsula.?
White House said on Tuesday that U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo is going to meet with Kim Yong Chol in New York this week .
The latest positive progress for the summit came after Trump canceled the scheduled meeting last Thursday, citing "tremendous anger and open hostility" displayed by Pyongyang recently.
Trump reversed course on Friday, saying both sides wanted the meeting to happen and it could still go ahead after productive talks. He also confirmed on Sunday that a US official team had arrived in the DPRK to talk about the summit preparation.
