WASHINGTON _ Donald Trump's top national security adviser Robert O'Brien is likely to select an Asia expert on the National Security Council, Matt Pottinger, as his top deputy, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Pottinger has been deeply involved in U.S. talks with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program and helped to plan Trump's meetings with the country's leader, Kim Jong Un. The people familiar with Pottinger's likely promotion asked not to be identified because the appointment hasn't been announced.
Trump told reporters on Friday that O'Brien "just picked a deputy, who's in the administration, you all know him," but didn't identify Pottinger.
Pottinger is a former reporter who covered China for The Wall Street Journal. He left journalism to join the U.S. Marines, and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
He went to work for the NSC in 2017 and was appointed as the Asia director.
