KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Preparations are underway to bring North Korean representatives to the United States for talks with former American officials, the first such meeting in more than five years.
Arranging the talks has become more complicated over the past eight days, with North Korea testing a ballistic missile and the slaying of Kim Jong Un's half brother in Malaysia, an act that many suspect was ordered by the North Korean leader. Malaysian police Sunday named as suspects four North Koreans who left the country on the day of the attack.
The planning for the Track 1.5 talks -- with the U.S. side made up of the former officials who usually take part in Track 2 talks, but the North Korean side comprising government officials -- is still in a preparatory stage, according to people with knowledge of the arrangements.
The State Department has not yet approved the North Koreans' visas for the talks, which would take place in New York within the next few weeks.
"The North Koreans have expressed an interest in engagement, but nothing's been approved yet," said one person familiar with the preparations, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss them. Others who have been in touch with North Koreans described an intense interest in what President Donald Trump might do.
The talks would be the clearest indication yet that Kim wants to talk with the Trump administration, another person with knowledge of the arrangements said.
"If this happens, I would take it as a very positive sign from both sides," the person said.
In recent years, there have been sporadic Track 1.5 talks that have taken place in Kuala Lumpur, Geneva, Berlin and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. But the talks have not taken place in the United States since July 2011, before Kim succeeded his father in North Korea.
The talks were being organized by Donald Zagoria of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, who served as a consultant on Asia during the Carter administration and has organized previous rounds of such talks. Zagoria declined to comment on the preparations.
Pyongyang had been sharply critical of the Obama administration, but in its announcement of its missile launch Feb. 12, the North's state media did not include talk of needing a deterrent against the United States and its policies.
In his own statement after the launch, Trump did not condemn Pyongyang. The new president has said little so far as to how he plans to deal with North Korea.
"North Korea -- we'll take care of it folks, we're going to take care of it all," he said at his news conference last week.
His administration is now conducting a review of North Korean policy.
"U.S. policy is hanging in the balance," said Adam Cathcart, a North Korea expert at the University of Leeds in Britain.
"I think the North Koreans ought to be pretty happy, because the Americans have laid off criticizing them too much and have in fact been making things quite easy for them," Cathcart said. "But at some point, they are going to have to decide whether to pick up the cudgel."
On Feb. 12, North Korea tested a ballistic missile for the first time since Trump was elected. The missile appeared to show significant technological advances, with upgraded power and range, and could mark another step in the push toward the capacity to hit Alaska or Washington state.
Then on Feb. 13, Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of the North Korean leader, was attacked and apparently poisoned at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. He died shortly afterward.
Although the investigation is ongoing, the South Korean government has blamed the assassination on Kim Jong Un, who has systematically eliminated potential rivals to his power over the past four years.
Malaysian police have arrested one North Korean man in connection with the attack, and on Sunday named four other North Koreans suspected of being involved.
The four had been in Malaysia for several weeks, but all left last Monday, the day of the attack, Noor Rashid Ibrahim, Malaysia's deputy national police chief, said at a news conference Sunday.
A Section on 02/20/2017