Secretary of State Mike Pompeo opened two days of high-level talks with a senior North Korean official Wednesday night, as the Trump administration tries to establish whether there is enough common ground to proceed with a summit meeting in Singapore next month.

美国国务卿蓬佩奥周三晚间与一名朝鲜高级官员展开磋商，开启了为期两天的美朝高级别会谈。特朗普政府正试图搞清楚双方是否有足够多的共同点去推进原定下个月在新加坡举行的美朝峰会。

The discussions began with a dinner Mr. Pompeo hosted for Gen. Kim Yong Chol, who is often described as the right-hand man to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and is making his first visit to the U.S. His arrival on Wednesday made him the highest-ranking North Korean to visit the U.S. in 18 years.

蓬佩奥设晚宴招待了朝鲜将军金英哲(Kim Yong Chol)，拉开了本轮会谈的序幕。金英哲常常被描述为朝鲜领导人金正恩(Kim Jong Un)的得力助手，这也是他第一次访美。金英哲周三的到访使他成为18年来访美的最高级别朝鲜官员。

Mr. Pompeo and Gen. Kim are planning to meet for more in-depth talks Thursday.

蓬佩奥和金英哲打算周四举行更深入的会谈。

“We want to see if we have the makings of a successful summit,” said a senior State Department official.

美国国务院一位高级官员说：“我们想看看双方是否具备成功举行峰会的条件。”

With less than two weeks left before the planned June 12 summit, significant differences remain over the terms on which Pyongyang might give up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security assurances and economic relief.

现在距离原定峰会日期6月12日只有不到两周时间。而平壤愿意在什么样的条件下放弃核武库来换取美国的安全保证和经济援助，美朝双方仍存在巨大分歧。

“The differences between North Korea and the U.S. remain quite significant. It won’t be easy to narrow the gap and find common ground, but I think it would not be impossible,” the South’s unification minister, Cho Myoung-gyon, said in a speech to European diplomats on Wednesday.

韩国统一部长赵明均(Cho Myoung-gyon)周三对欧洲外交人士发表讲话时说，朝鲜与美国仍存在相当大的分歧，要缩小这种分歧并找到共同点并不容易，但他认为并非不可能。

Public statements by each side indicate that one major obstacle is the pace of disarmament. The U.S. is pushing the regime to commit to “complete, verifiable and irreversible” denuclearization as quickly as possible, while the North Korean leader, Mr. Kim, has described a more phased process involving concessions from both sides at each stage.

美朝双方的公开声明显示，去核化的速度问题是目前的一大障碍。美国敦促朝鲜做出承诺，尽快实施“全面、可核查、不可逆的”无核化，但朝鲜领导人金正恩却抛出一个更具阶段性的程序，需要双方在每个阶段都做出让步。

（来源：爱语吧）