Trump Administration Cancels Back-Channel Talks With North Korea
25, 2017
BEIJING — After approving plans on Friday for informal talks in New York between a North Korean delegation
and former American officials, the Trump administration reversed course hours later, withdrawing approval for the North Koreans’ visas, two people who were to take part in the planned talks said.
Others in the American delegation were Robert L. Gallucci, a negotiator on North Korea during the Clinton presidency; Victor Cha, a senior adviser on North Korea to George W. Bush;
and Evans J. R. Revere, a former principal deputy assistant secretary of state specializing in North Korea.
News of the missile test arrived as President Trump
and Mr. Abe were eating dinner at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s members-only club in Palm Beach, Fla. At first, the North Korea developments did not appear to deter the State Department’s plan to move ahead with the talks.
While the talks were unofficial, they were seen as a test of the willingness of the Trump administration
to begin serious negotiations at a later date, or to send a special American envoy to North Korea.
But it was clear, that person said, that a senior official in the State Department, the White House or elsewhere in
the government had second thoughts about issuing visas to representatives of North Korea in light of recent events.
Just days before Mr. Kim’s death, North Korea launched a new type of nuclear-capable missile, apparently
timed to coincide with the visit of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan to the United States.