US checking reports of North Korean envoy’s execution, says Pompeo

The US is attempting to check on reports that a senior North Korean official involved in Pyongyang’s non-proliferation talks with Washington has been executed, said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The United States is attempting to check on reports that a senior North Korean official involved in Pyongyang’s non-proliferation talks with Washington has been executed, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday.

Nuclear envoy Kim Hyok Choi had been executed as part of a purge of officials who steered negotiations for a failed summit. (Reuters File Photo)

“We’ve seen the reporting to which you are referring,” Pompeo told a news conference in Berlin in answer to a reporter’s question. “We’re doing our best to check it out. I don’t have anything else to add to that today.”

Earlier on Friday, a South Korean newspaper reported that nuclear envoy Kim Hyok Choi had been executed as part of a purge of officials who steered negotiations for a failed summit between leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump.

(The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text, only the headline has been changed.)