Trump Administration Cancels Back-Channel Talks With North Korea<br />25, 2017<br />BEIJING — After approving plans on Friday for informal talks in New York between a North Korean delegation<br />and former American officials, the Trump administration reversed course hours later, withdrawing approval for the North Koreans’ visas, two people who were to take part in the planned talks said.<br />Others in the American delegation were Robert L. Gallucci, a negotiator on North Korea during the Clinton presidency; Victor Cha, a senior adviser on North Korea to George W. Bush;<br />and Evans J. R. Revere, a former principal deputy assistant secretary of state specializing in North Korea.<br />News of the missile test arrived as President Trump<br />and Mr. Abe were eating dinner at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s members-only club in Palm Beach, Fla. At first, the North Korea developments did not appear to deter the State Department’s plan to move ahead with the talks.<br />While the talks were unofficial, they were seen as a test of the willingness of the Trump administration<br />to begin serious negotiations at a later date, or to send a special American envoy to North Korea.<br />But it was clear, that person said, that a senior official in the State Department, the White House or elsewhere in<br />the government had second thoughts about issuing visas to representatives of North Korea in light of recent events.<br />Just days before Mr. Kim’s death, North Korea launched a new type of nuclear-capable missile, apparently<br />timed to coincide with the visit of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan to the United States.
