The magnificent meeting in New York of the Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, Kim Yong Chol, delighted even unruffled Koreans. A high-ranking official from the DPRK who arrived in the US for talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was received at the level of former heads of state.

On arrival, Kim Yong Chol, who is on the US sanctions list since 2010 as a person involved in nuclear and missile programs, met an escort of six or seven black executive cars accompanied by police patrol cars. According to a source in diplomatic circles, such a reception, with the provision of an escort, "is carried out for persons no less than the former head of state". This was reported by the newspaper "Chunan Ilbo".

Earlier at the meeting in Panmunjom, the US and the DPRK discussed the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries, lifting economic sanctions, and also halting joint military maneuvers of the United States and South Korea. On the part of the United States, a demand was made for the DPRK to refrain from a military nuclear program. It is these issues, according to the publication, and will be discussed at the talks between Kim Yong Chol and Michael Pompeo in New York. Information on the content of their first meeting, which took place during the working dinner, is not yet available. But on his Twitter, Pompeo noted that he had a "good working lunch with Kim Yong Chol in New York".