North Korea considers dropping nuclear talks with US

North Korea is considering dropping nuclear talks with the United States and may rethink a ban on missile and nuclear tests unless Washington makes concessions, news reports from the North’s capital on Friday quoted a senior diplomat as saying.

North Korea’s vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui told a news conference in Pyongyang that the US lost a golden opportunity to resolve the nuclear issue at the Hanoi summit between the two leaders, according to reports by the Associated Press and Russia’s Tass news agency. She added that North Korea would soon decide whether to continue talks with the US and maintain a 15-month moratorium on weapons tests.

We have no intention to yield to the U.S. demands (at the Hanoi summit) in any form, nor are we willing to engage in negotiations of this kind,” TASS quoted Choe as telling reporters in the North Korean capital.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton “created the atmosphere of hostility and mistrust and, therefore, obstructed the constructive effort for negotiations between the supreme leaders of North Korea and the United States”, Tass quoted Choe as saying.

Kim is set to make an official announcement soon on his position on the denuclearisation talks with the United States and the North’s further actions, it added, citing Choe.

“I want to make it clear that the gangster-like stand of the U.S. will eventually put the situation in danger,” AP quoted her as saying. But she added: “Personal relations between the two supreme leaders are still good and the chemistry is mysteriously wonderful.”

The second Trump-Kim summit broke down over differences about U.S. demands for Pyongyang to denuclearise and North Korea’s demand for dramatic relief from international sanctions imposed for its nuclear and missile tests, which it pursued for years in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Choe had said after the Hanoi talks that Kim might lose his commitment to pursue a deal with the United States after seeing it reject a request to lift some sanctions in return for the North destroying its main known nuclear complex.