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A US envoy arrived in South Korea on Tuesday in an effort to resume stalled nuclear talks with North Korea, hours after it issued an announcement saying it has no intention of sitting down with the United States and instructed South Korea to “stop meddling”.
US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, who has led working-level talks with the North Koreans, landed at a US army base south of Seoul, media reported, and was resulting from meet South Korean officers on Wednesday and Thursday.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kwon Jong Gun, director common for US affairs at North Korea’s international ministry, accused South Korea of misinterpreting a North Korean assertion dismissing an “untimely rumour” about one other summit between North Korean chief Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump.
North Korea mentioned on Saturday it didn’t really feel the necessity for a brand new summit, days after South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who had provided to mediate between Kim and Trump, prompt the 2 leaders meet once more earlier than the US elections in November.
“It is just the time for (South Korea) to stop meddling in others’ affairs but it seems there is no cure or prescription for its bad habit,” Kwon mentioned in an announcement carried by the North’s official KCNA information company.
“Explicitly speaking once again, we have no intention to sit face to face with the United States.”
Trump and Kim met for the primary time in 2018 in Singapore, elevating hopes for a negotiated finish to North Korea’s nuclear programme. But their second summit, in 2019 in Vietnam, and subsequent working-level negotiations fell aside.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor on the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, mentioned Kwon’s assertion mirrored lingering inter-Korean pressure and North Korea’s view that nuclear points must be mentioned solely with the United States.
“It also suggested that North Koreans would ditch the past concept of negotiations where the South played a broker role, and won’t return to the table without major U.S. concessions,” Yang mentioned.
Biegun mentioned final week there was time for either side to re-engage and “make substantial progress” however the novel coronavirus pandemic would make an in-person summit troublesome earlier than the US presidential elections on Nov. 3.
The coronavirus sophisticated Biegun’s go to in a extra private method as nicely.
A newspaper reported that due to the outbreak, the envoy wouldn’t be visiting a Korean hen soup restaurant that has been an everyday cease on earlier visits, and as an alternative had organized for the dish to be ready on the U.S. ambassador’s residence.
Last month, North Korea abruptly raised tensions with South Korea and blew up a joint liaison workplace, simply on its aspect of the border, earlier than simply as instantly suspending plans for unspecified army actions.
ALSO READ | North Korea says it won’t sit down with US, urges South Korea to ‘stop meddling’
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