US officials 'secretly visited N Korea twice last year'
The brief visits in April and August were aimed at encouraging the new leadership to moderate its foreign policy after the death of Kim's father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011.
A White House official made two secret visits to North Korea last year in an unsuccessful effort to improve relations after Kim Jong-un assumed power, according to former US officials familiar with the trips.
The brief visits in April and August were aimed at encouraging the new leadership to moderate its foreign policy after the death of Kim's father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011.
The ruling elite apparently spurned the outreach effort. This month, after a surge of fierce anti-US rhetoric, the government in Pyongyang defied international warnings and conducted its third and most powerful underground nuclear test.
The former US officials said the first visit was an unsuccessful attempt to persuade North Korea not to launch a long-range rocket. North Korea carried out the launch on April 12. The missile flew only a few minutes before it exploded and crashed into the sea. A subsequent test of another long-range rocket in December was successful.
The April trip was led by Joseph DeTrani, an expert on North Korea who then headed the National Counter Proliferation Centre in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which co-ordinates US intelligence agencies, the former US officials said. It was unclear who led the August trip.
They said Sydney Seiler, who is in charge of Korea policy at the National Security Council, went on both trips. Seiler, a veteran CIA analyst, speaks fluent Korean.