White House: Second Meeting Between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un Scheduled for Late February

Following a meeting between a senior North Korean official and Donald Trump, the President of the United States in Washington, the White House has announced that Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, will meet for the second time at the end of February. According to Reuters, the White House states that the location of this meeting will be announced later. Kim Jong Un is 'ready' for another meeting with Trump and is 'worried' about the negotiation process. The White House reports that the meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Yong Chol, North Korea's chief negotiator, lasted for an hour and a half on Friday and discussed denuclearization and the summit between the two countries. Reports indicate that this senior North Korean official presented a new letter from Kim Jong Un to Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Sarah Sanders, the White House spokesperson, told reporters that despite the progress made so far regarding North Korea, the U.S. will continue to increase pressure and enforce sanctions against Pyongyang. Reuters notes that while the timing of the second summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un has been announced, there are no signs of a reduction in differences between the two countries. No progress has been made on the U.S. request for North Korea's denuclearization, and North Korea's request for a reduction in sanctions has not yielded any results so far. Kim Yong Chol first met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday before going to the White House to meet with Donald Trump. He arrived in Washington on Thursday evening local time to meet with senior U.S. officials. Kim Yong Chol is the first senior North Korean official to spend a night in the U.S. capital in two decades. Last spring, North Korean and U.S. leaders met in Singapore and agreed to move towards denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. However, no specific practical steps have been taken since then. The U.S. states that sanctions will only be lifted after North Korea is completely disarmed, and North Korea has expressed dissatisfaction regarding the continuation of sanctions and other issues such as the deadlock in signing a peace treaty between the two Koreas.