A North Korean senior diplomat tasked with preparing a potential second North Korea-U.S. summit has returned home after visiting China and Russia. 

North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui boarded an Air Koryo flight that departed Beijing Capital International Airport for Pyongyang on Thursday afternoon. Earlier in the day, she arrived in Beijing on an Air China flight from Moscow. 

She smiled at waiting reporters at the Chinese airport, but did not respond to questions regarding her planned working-level meeting with U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun. 

Choe visited China last week for talks with her counterpart, Kong Xuanyou, to discuss Korean Peninsula affairs. 

She then headed to Russia to join her Russian and Chinese counterparts for their first trilateral meeting, where they called for "corresponding measures" in response to the North's steps toward denuclearization.