Chol, vice chairman of the North Korean Workers' Party Central Committee, arrived at Washington's Dulles International Airport on Thursday evening. The visit was not announced by either of the sides.

The North Korean negotiator and his entourage were reportedly welcomed at the airport by a team of US officials led by Stephen Biegun, a US special representative for North Korea, who was spotted at the airport ahead of Chol's reported arrival.

Read more

When asked about the visit, Biegun, however, refused to answer reporters' questions. The whole visit has been a bit of a mystery with neither Washington, nor Pyongyang shedding any light on the arrangement.

The North Korean delegation kept a low profile as it left the airport through a side exit, accompanied by their US counterparts, according to Yonhap.

The agency reported earlier that Chol's plane departed from Beijing earlier in the day and was making a direct flight to the US capital. Chol is widely expected to meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who himself has travelled to North Korea on numerous occasions.

The top item on the meeting's agenda is said to be the preparations for a second meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The meeting has been in the works for some time. Speaking early January, Trump said that he has received another "great" letter from his North Korean counterpart and expected to meet him in "not too distant future." 

According to Trump, the parties are in the process of agreeing a venue for the meeting.

There was no word as to whether Trump would meet with Chol while the latter is in Washington. Yonhap reported that the North Korean representative might pay a "courtesy call" on Trump and hand him over another letter from Kim.

Speculations have been rife as what country might host the second summit, with Vietnam, Singapore, which hosted the first one, and even Hawaii being mentioned as the most probable contenders.

The Southeast Asian country of Vietnam has been touted as the most likely venue and is reportedly preparing to welcome Kim for a state visit early February.

The summit in Singapore went without a breakthrough in terms of denuclearization, as Trump and Kim signed a vaguely-termed commitment to pursue a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. While the summit carried a huge symbolic value and triggered a lot of self-praise by Trump for having averted an all-out war with Pyongyang, the progress has since stalled, with North Korea demanding sanctions relief and threatening to reverse course if Washington chooses to "cling to sanctions and pressure."

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!