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A2 UP FRONT
Saturday 12 May 2018

2 trips to North Korea with top U.S. diplomat, 18 years apart

By MATTHEW LEE Now, Washington was and little to no sleep.
AP Diplomatic Writer abuzz with rumors that he Notwithstanding the se-
WASHINGTON (AP) — It be- would be heading back cret arrangements for
gan with quiet words from soon and would bring back Pompeo’s return trip, we
State Department officials: three U.S. citizens who had wouldn’t be the first to re-
Apply for a new passport been held by North Korea port it.
immediately. You may for more than a year for al- As our plane descended
soon be going to a coun- leged anti-state activities. Tuesday into the U.S. air
try for which ordinary U.S. It would turn out to be my base in Yokota, Japan, for
passports are not valid for second visit to the isolated, its second refueling stop,
travel. authoritarian nation. Eigh- Trump announced that his
Vague as it was, the in- teen years ago, I had ac- top diplomat was on his
struction to two reporters companied Madeleine way to Pyongyang.
last Friday left little doubt Albright on her historic trip Circumstances were very
about our mystery destina- to North Korea, the first- different when I’d visited
tion: North Korea. ever by a sitting secretary in 2000 as a reporter for
Secretary of State Mike of state — a highly choreo- the French news agency
Pompeo had visited the graphed and publicized Agence France-Presse to
capital, Pyongyang, in two-day affair covered by cover Albright’s highly an-
complete secrecy while he some 80 journalists. ticipated visit. Dozens of
was still CIA chief in early But this was something journalists had either flown
In this Wednesday, May 9, 2018, file photo provided by the North April to set the stage for completely different: an with the secretary of state
Korean government, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, an unprecedented summit under-the-radar, secret or taken charter flights
shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a
meeting at Workers’ Party of Korea headquarters in Pyongyang, between President Donald mission with only two Amer- from Beijing to Pyongyang
North Korea. Trump and North Korean ican reporters as indepen- to cover the events. There
Associated Press leader Kim Jong Un. dent witnesses. The other were organized press tours
reporter was Carol Morello of the capital and a mass
of The Washington Post. stadium show hosted by
Since the death last year the current leader’s father,
of Otto Warmbier, the Kim Jong Il.
American college student This time the visit was much
who suffered brain dam- lower-key. When we ar-
age while in North Korean rived at the Pyongyang
custody, U.S. nationals airport early Wednesday
have been prohibited from morning, Pompeo was
traveling to North Korea greeted by North Korean
without special passport dignitaries and boarded
validation. I was soon in a Mercedes limousine. We
possession of new passport climbed aboard a Chevy
and a letter informing me van. Pyongyang had
that its validation was “in changed a lot in two de-
the national interest of the cades. There were more
United States.” tall buildings and more
We were sworn to secrecy vehicles — though still far
about the trip and told to fewer than in other world
pack a bag and be on capitals. Also new were the
stand-by, but given no de- stoplights. After a winding
parture date or time. drive past grandiose me-
Rumors of the trip intensi- morials and revolutionary
fied through the week- billboards, we arrived at
end, but it was only late on the the Koryo International
Monday afternoon that we hotel, where many of us
were told we’d leave from had stayed when Albright
the State Department at visited. Its lobby would be
7:45 that night. the base for Carol and me
We left in a two-van mo- for the next nearly 13 hours
torcade from the under- while Pompeo met and
ground parking garage for lunched with North Korean
Joint Base Andrews outside officials, including Kim.
Washington. Once there, Mostly bored, we waited
we waited for Pompeo to for news over endless cups
arrive and soon the U.S. Air of coffee.
Force C-32, a converted Still, the Koryo can offer up
Boeing 757, was airborne. surprises.
Destination: Pyongyang, Eighteen years ago, it was
capital of the most reclu- the appearance of a Ger-
sive nation on Earth. man aid worker who seized
So began a four-day jour- on the rare presence of
ney with no confirmed foreign correspondents to
schedule on the ground in show them squalid living
North Korea, no guarantee conditions outside of town.
of the prisoners’ release He was later deported.q