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US President Donald Trump (right) greets North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Capella hotel on Singapore’s Sentosa island before the first-ever North Korea-US summit on June 12. (provided by The Straits Times/AFP/Yonhap News)

The US government sent a letter to North Korea from “President of the United States Donald Trump” via Panmunjeom on July 1 ahead of a scheduled third visit to the North by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on July 6, sources reported.

A foreign affairs source informed on developments in the Korean Peninsula political situation said on July 2 that the US had apparently sent Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim and CIA Korea Mission Center Chief Andrew Kim to Panmunjeom to deliver an “important letter” to Workers’ Party of Korea vice chairman and United Front Department director Kim Yong-chol.

According to the source, Kim Yong-chol appeared to have met and exchanged brief greetings with Sung Kim and Andrew Kim at the Unification House (Tongilgak) on the North Korean side of Panmunjeom on July 1, before accepting the letter “in a courteous manner” and returning.

Kim Yong-chol is a close associate of Kim Jong-un who was present at Pompeo’s two previous visits and meetings with the North Korean leader. A South Korean government source confirmed that Pompeo would be “visiting North Korea on July 6.”

It was not confirmed what the content of Trump’s letter was. But some observers speculated it may have concerned early denuclearization measures and/or the return of the remains of US soldiers who disappeared during the Korean War.

With Sung subsequently returning to Manila on July 2, the meeting at Panmunjeom appears to have been intended only to pass along the letter rather than for working-level talks. As of the afternoon of July 2, the only response from Washington on the working-level meeting was a statement that Sung Kim had met and held discussions with North Korean officials and that full-scale talks between the two sides would begin in the future.

In a July 2 report, Voice of America quoted the US State Department spokesperson’s office as saying both sides could be expected to take swift action shortly for additional talks. The State Department was also quoted by VOA as saying there was “great momentum now for positive change”, adding that the North Korea-US summit in Singapore was only the first stage in a process that is currently under way. The South Korean government avoided official comment on the latest Panmunjeom meeting, which it said was “a matter for the US government to announce.”

Commenting on North Korea-US relations following the June 12 summit in Singapore, Minister of Unification Cho Myung-gyon said at a July 2 talk with reporters at the Central Government Complex in Seoul for his first anniversary in office that the two sides were “currently at the stage of going through working-level preparations [for implementation of the summit agreement] and beginning follow-up talks in earnest.”

A senior South Korean government official also addressed speculation in some quarters that some turbulence may have arisen between Washington and Pyongyang over implementation of the summit agreement.

“The situation is not one where North Korea-US relations can be seen as being put on hold,” the official said.

“After the Panmunjeom Declaration on Apr. 27, follow-up discussions began with the high-level inter-Korean talks on June 1,” the official noted, adding that it had been “just over 20 days since the June 12 North Korea-US summit.”

“The North may have needed its own time to prepare,” the official added.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer, and Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]