Plans for the first contact between North Korea and the United States after President Donald Trump took office were cancelled after the US State Department denied a visa for the top envoy from Pyongyang, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
The talks, between senior North Korean foreign ministry envoy Choe Son Hui and former US officials, were scheduled to take place on March 1 and 2 in New York but were called off after Choe was denied a visa, the Journal said.
It was not clear what led the State Department to deny the visa but North Korea's test-firing of a ballistic missile on February 12 and the murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's half brother in Malaysia may have played a role, the report said. South Korean and US officials have said they believe North Korean agents assassinated Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of Kim Jong Un, on February 13.
A US State Department official denied so-called track two discussions had been scheduled. "The US government had no plans to engage in track 2 talks in New York," the official said, declining comment on individual visa cases. A South Korean foreign ministry official declined to comment on the report of the cancelled meeting in New York, saying the reported plan did not involve the US or South Korean government.