Senior government officials from the United States, Japan and South Korea met in Washington on Tuesday to discuss the outcome of U.S.-North Korea working-level talks, just days after negotiations between the US and North Korea broke down in Sweden, according to South Korean Foreign Ministry.
US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun held talks with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, the US State Department said in a statement.
They “reaffirmed the importance of continued close… coordination on North Korea to achieve complete denuclearization,” it said.
Earlier on Saturday, nuclear talks with the US in Sweden broke down, North Korea said that it had “no intention” to continue unless the US took steps to end hostilities.
The North walked away from the talks and said that it was disappointed at the lack of “new and creative” solutions offered by Washington, though the US said that the meeting involved “good discussions” and it was willing to meet again later this month.
The meeting in Sweden came after months of stalemate following a February meeting between the North’s leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump and after Pyongyang’s defiant test of a sea-launched ballistic missile last week.
The two have held two summits so far. The first one in Singapore in 2018 resulted in a vague denuclearisation agreement which led to a few concrete results.
The agreement included a set of their commitments to build new bilateral relations, make joint efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula and work towards its “complete denuclearization”.
The two have held two summits so far. The first one in Singapore in 2018 resulted in a vague denuclearisation agreement which led to a few concrete results.
US President Donald Trump downplayed the Korean test in remarks to press in Washington, stating that the two countries would be meeting soon, Aljazeera reported.