The organizer of the talks, the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, led by Donald S. Zagoria, was told by the State Department on Friday morning that the visas would be granted.
But the decision was reversed in the afternoon when “someone overruled State,” said one person who planned to participate in the talks. Both of the people on the participants’ list spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter.
The reversal came as the Malaysian government announced that VX nerve agent, a chemical on a United Nations list of weapons of mass destruction, was used to kill the estranged half brother of the leader of North Korea at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13.
South Korea has accused North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, of ordering the killing of his half brother, Kim Jong-nam.
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