U.S.-N. Korea talks cancelled over Kim’s murder

An unofficial meeting was scheduled for next week

A protest outside the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

Planned talks in New York between North Korea and former U.S. officials were cancelled following the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half brother, U.S. media reported on Saturday.

The unofficial meeting which was to have taken place next week fell through when the State Department refused to issue visas for diplomats coming from Pyongyang, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed sources who knew of the decision.

It would have been the first meeting between the two countries to have taken place inside the United States in more than five years.

According to

The Post , Washington decided to cancel the talks after Malaysian police confirmed that Kim Jong-nam was assassinated with VX, a lethal nerve agent manufactured for chemical warfare and listed by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction.

Kim Jong-nam died on February 13 after being attacked by two women at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. He suffered a seizure and died before reaching hospital.