Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the former CIA director, and CIA official Andrew Kim, the pair on the left, have dinner with North Korea's Kim Yong Chol, a former intelligence chief, in New York on Wednesday. Current and former spy chiefs are playing an unusually prominent role in arranging a proposed summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
U.S. State Department
NPR: The Spies Have A Leading Role In The North Korea Summit
When Mike Pompeo became CIA director last year, he immediately set his sights on North Korea and its opaque nuclear program.
"Within weeks of me coming here, I created a Korea Mission Center, stood it up with a senior leader who had just retired, brought him back to run the organization," Pompeo said in January.
He didn't name that senior leader, but was referring to Andrew Kim, a Korean-American who grew up in South Korea.
President Trump was clearly impressed with Pompeo's initiative on North Korea, and sent him there — reportedly with Andrew Kim — on a secret trip in April to lay the groundwork for the possible summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. If the summit happens, it would be the first meeting between leaders of the two countries.
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WNU Editor: The value of back-channels and the use of non-diplomatic officials to create a environment for the politicians to step in are on full display right now.
Hat tip to Fred for this link.
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