The US and North Korea were all set to resume working-level nuclear talks in Sweden on Saturday, after their preliminary meeting the previous day.
The talks will mark their first formal negotiation since February’s summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi that ended without a deal due to differences over the scope of Pyongyang’s denuclearization and Washington’s compensation, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Advertisement
The countries’ deputy delegation chiefs — Mark Lambert of the U.S. and Kwon Jong-gun of the North — were said to have had preliminary talks in Villa Elfvik Strand in Lidingo, northeast of Stockholm, on Friday to discuss the schedule and administrative issues for the formal resumption of their negotiations.
The agreement includes 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”.
On Wednesday, North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile designed for submarine launch.
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.
The meeting in Stockholm will be the first formal working-level talks since the leaders of the two nations met in June, vowing to renew negotiations that had stalled after the failed attempt in February 2019.
The longest running nuclear programme, the Yongbyan nuclear site, will be a point of contention during talks, as many estimates. Kim Jong-un had offered to close the site during the Hanoi summit in February with Trump, in exchange for the lifting of sanctions which the US officials said were too many.
On Thursday, South Korean Ambassador to the UN Cho Tae-yul said in a parliamentary audit that North should “change course” and dismiss the idea that time may be on its side further adding, “There is no guarantee that the Trump administration’s position will remain flexible to maintain the momentum for dialogue, I think it could be the last chance for the North.” Yonhap quoted him as saying.