Quad leaders urge North Korea to engage in dialogue
The leaders of US, Australia, Japan, and India -- have called on North Korea to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions that prohibit its ballistic missile tests.
The US has said that North Korea should denuclearise before Washington signs a war-ending declaration with Pyongyang.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency quoted State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert as saying: “We believe that denuclearization has to take place before we get to other parts.”
US media had reported earlier that the signing of a joint declaration to formally end the Korean War was one of the verbal agreements between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un when they met on June 12 in Singapore.
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But besides the pace and scale of denuclearization, Washington and Pyongyang have disagreed on whether to issue a war-ending declaration.
North Korea has argued that such a document is the first step towards peace on the peninsula, whereas the US has said it is too early to discuss the topic.
At the conclusion of the historic Trump-Kim summit, the two sides issued a joint statement in which they agreed to improve bilateral relations and work together to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the peninsula.
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