Working-level officials from North Korea-U.S. continue their 3rd day of negotiation

2019-02-23 19

We begin our newscast with updates on the current negotiations between North Korea and the U.S.
With only a few days left to go until their second summit,... officials from both sides are hard at work, holding marathon working-level talks.
For more, let's head over to our Lee Ji-won who is in Hanoi to bring us the latest.
Ji-won, what do you have for us?

Hye-sung, the negotiators resumed their talks again earlier this morning at 9 a.m. local time,... just like they did yesterday.
North Korea's Special Representative for U.S. Affairs, Kim Hyok-chol, and his delegation... once again visited Stephen Biegun at the Hotel du Parc Hanoi, where he is staying.
He was accompanied by two other North Korean delegates -- Kim Song-hye, who heads the United Front Department's strategy office,... and Choe Kang-il, the acting director-general for the foreign ministry's department on North American affairs.
From Thursday afternoon until Friday morning and evening... the two negotiators had already sat down for around 12 hours.
Amid various speculations over their discussions, it's widely expected that they are focusing on dismantling the Yeongbyeon nuclear facility and freezing all of North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and missile programs.
In return,... the two sides would open liaison offices, agree to a formal end of the Korean War... and allow more inter-Korean economic exchanges.

Also Ji-won, do we know when the leaders are going to arrive?

Well Hyesung,... for now the speculation is that Kim Jong-un will arrive on Monday and Trump on Tuesday. But nothing has been confirmed yet.
Now we do know that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be here from Tuesday through Thursday, according to the State Department.
During his visit, he will also be attending talks between Trump and Vietnamese leaders, before leaving for the Philippines on March 1st.

That's all from me for now, but I will keep you updated throughout the day Hyesung.