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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony for Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Jan. 8. (Xinhua News/AFP)

A second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump is expected to gain momentum following Kim’s and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent reaffirmation of commitment to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and expression of hope for the outcome of a second North Korea-US summit.

Observers are now watching to see whether US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Workers’ Party of Korea Vice Chairman and United Front Department Director Kim Yong-chol will hold high-level talks in New York this month to undertake preparations.

Pompeo and Kim Yong-chol had initially planned to meet in New York on Nov. 8 of last year, but the meeting failed to transpire after the North requested a postponement just beforehand. With Pyongyang “respectfully requesting understanding” from Washington in its postponement message, diplomatic observers speculated at the time that Kim’s New York visit was very likely to happen eventually.

The two sides have reportedly been involved in behind-the-scenes discussions for a visit. Pompeo is currently touring the Middle East through Jan. 15 and scheduled to attend the Davos Forum in Switzerland with Trump on Jan. 22–25, which suggests the high-level North Korea-US talks may take place between Jan. 16 and 21 or after Jan. 26. If they go smoothly, observers are predicting a second North Korea-US summit could take place in late February or early March.

While attending a Jan. 9 forum in Washington, DC, organized by the Hudson Institute, South Korean Ambassador to the US Cho Yoon-je said, “I look forward to a second North Korea-US summit taking place.”

“Communication is believed to be taking place right now [between North Korea and the US],” he added.

“The train has now started, and no one wants to jump off of that train,” Cho continued.

“The key question is how fast and how far that train can travel,” he said.

Pyongyang and Washington have not yet bridged their differences on denuclearization and corresponding measures, sources said. The agreement Kim Jong-un and Xi reached on “addressing North Korea’s rational concerns” at their recent summit could be seen as a message indirectly urging the US to loosen its sanctions or adopt measures to guarantee North Korea’s regime security. The question of how much North Korea and the US are each willing to concede to find common ground will be a key variable in their second bilateral summit. Progress could end up slowed if Trump sides with his advisors insisting on firmly ensuring North Korea’s denuclearization before a summit takes place.

With Vietnam seen as the most likely venue for the second North Korea-US summit, the next focus of attention is a Jan. 8 meeting between US Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink and Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh. According to a Vietnam News report, Kritenbrink delivered a New Year’s greeting on Trump’s behalf to President and Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

The Vietnamese government has also reportedly communicated its intent to host the second North Korea-US summit to South and North Korea. In a Jan. 7 report, CNN noted that a White House scouting team had recently visited Hanoi, Bangkok, and Hawaii to examine potential venues for a second North Korea-US summit.

Mongolian Ambassador to the US Yondon Otgonbayar, whose country had been mentioned as another candidate site for the summit, said in a Jan. 9 interview with Voice of America that Mongolia “may be unsuitable as a summit venue due to its harsh winter weather.”

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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