North Korea says time running out for fresh US talks

Time is running out for the United States to formulate a new strategy to revive denuclearisation talks, a senior North Korean diplomat said on Thursday, as a U.S. envoy for North Korea is due to visit South Korea ahead of President Donald Trump’s trip.

Negotiations have been stalled since a second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi in February collapsed over differences between U.S. calls for complete denuclearisation and Kim’s demands for sanctions relief.

Kim has said a third meeting would be possible only if Washington adopted a more flexible approach, setting a year-end deadline.

The United States is in behind-the-scenes talks with North Korea over a possible third summit and has proposed reopening working-level negotiations, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Wednesday.

Kwon Jong Gun, director-general for U.S. affairs at the North’s foreign ministry, said the United States continues to speak of dialogue while “becoming more and more desperate in its hostile acts”.

He did not elaborate, but a foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday that the recent U.S. extension of sanctions against North Korea was an act of hostility and an outright challenge to the first summit between Kim and Trump in Singapore last year.

“The dialogue would not open by itself though the United States repeatedly talks about resumption of dialogue like a parrot without considering any realistic proposal that would fully conform with the interests of both sides,” Kwon said in a statement carried by Pyongyang’s official KCNA news agency.

“If the United States is to move towards producing a result, time will not be enough.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday called a fresh round of nuclear talks a “very real possibility,” following a letter sent to Kim by Trump.

KCNA has said Trump’s letter had “excellent content” and Kim would “seriously contemplate” it, without elaborating.

(Reuters contributed to this story)