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US President Donald Trump talks to reporters aboard a plane headed for Florida

North Korean officials and American experts on North Korea are reportedly getting ready to engage in “1.5 track dialogue,” which would involve figures from both the government and the private sector, in New York. Since North Korean officials will need the US State Department to approve and issue visas in order to visit the US, this is expected to serve as a litmus test for President Donald Trump’s North Korean policy.

On Feb. 19, the Washington Post reported that Donald S. Zagoria, senior vice president of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, is preparing to hold the meetings in New York within a few weeks and that North Korean government officials and former US government officials are planning to participate. A likely leader of the North Korean delegation, according to the report, is Choe Son-hui, director general of the US affairs bureau in North Korea‘s Foreign Ministry.

If the meeting is held, it would be the first 1.5 track meeting between North Korea and the US during the Trump administration. It would also be the first time for North Korean officials and American experts on North Korea to meet in New York since Mar. 2012. North Korea was represented at that meeting by Choe and then North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho (now Foreign Minister).

So far, the State Department has not decided whether to issue visas to the North Korean officials so that they can attend the meeting. The North’s recent test launch of a ballistic missile and suspicions that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the killing of Kim Jong-nam are further complicating efforts to arrange the meeting, the newspaper said.

“The American organizers are really pushing the State Department to issue the visas. The State Department is acting with considerable caution,” said a diplomatic source in Washington. But since both Pyongyang and the Trump Administration are making exploratory moves without explicitly criticizing each other, the visas could be issued as long as there are no further complications.

By Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent

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