North Korea and US to resume nuclear talks
"US and DPRK officials plan to meet within the next week," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said, using an acronym for the country, confirming reports out of North Korea on Tuesday.
North Korea's First Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui was quoted by state-run media as saying the talks would restart on Saturday, following preparatory contacts the day prior.
The location of the talks remains unclear. The US side declined to comment on the place or exact timing of the negotiations.
Last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo indicated he was keen on a new round of talks with the isolated Asian country.
Choe expressed the hope that "the talks would boost the positive development in relations" between the two countries.
South Korea's Presidential Office welcomed the announcement from North Korea.
Recently, the Communist leadership in Pyongyang had signalled it was ready for new talks. But Choe also said in a statement last month that Washington needed to come up with new proposals to satisfy Pyongyang.
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had agreed to working-level negotiations at a meeting on the inter-Korean border in late June.
In February, a summit between the two leaders failed in Vietnam. Both could not agree on the central issue of nuclear disarmament by Pyongyang and the quid pro quo from Washington.
At their first summit in Singapore in June 2018, Kim had agreed to a "complete denuclearization," but without concrete commitments about a deadline for the disarmament of its nuclear arsenal.
In September, North Korea made the success of future negotiations with the US dependent on security guarantees. Pyongyang is also calling for a relaxation in sanctions.
Trump says he remains satisfied with a situation in which North Korea does not fire long-range missiles and has not tested new nuclear weapons, stressing that the full weight of the US sanctions regime will remain in place until progress is made on the nuclear talks.
