Senior North Korean diplomat Kim Yong Chol is in Beijing on his way to the United States for potential working-level talks with U.S. officials, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported on Tuesday.

The high-level North Korean visit to the U.S., reportedly confirmed by Yonhap after seeing a list of passengers on a New York-bound flight from Beijing due to depart on Wednesday, was also raised as a possibility to NK News in conversation with a source on Monday.

Kim Yong Chol, who serves as vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and director of the