North Korean officials canceled planned secret meeting with Pence

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to meet with North Korean officials earlier this month during the Winter Olympics in South Korea but the North Koreans canceled the meeting, Pence’s office said on Tuesday.

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Pence was going to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, and the nominal head of state, Kim Yong Nam, but the North Koreans scrapped the Feb. 10 meeting two hours before it was set to start, the Washington Post reported.

“This administration will stand in the way of Kim’s desire to whitewash their murderous regime with nice photo ops at the Olympics. Perhaps that’s why they walked away from a meeting or perhaps they were never sincere about sitting down,” Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)