North ready for ‘ denuke’ talks: Seoul
Seoul, March 6: North Korea’s leader, Kim Jongun, has told South Korean envoys that he is willing to begin negotiations with the United States on abandoning its nuclear weapons and that it would suspend all nuclear and missile tests while engaged in such talks, South Korean officials said on Tuesday.
North Korea is willing to abandon its nuclear programmes if its national security — and that of its leadership — is guaranteed, the South’s national security adviser Chung Eui- yong said after returning from a meeting in Pyongyang with leader Kim Jong Un.
The North is also open to “frank” talks with the US on denuclearisation and would suspend missile and nuclear tests while dialogue was under way, Mr Chung added.
The leaders of North and South Korea will hold a historic summit at Panmunjom, on their heavily armed border, next month after Pyongyang expressed willingness to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees, Seoul said Tuesday.
The meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae- in will be the first summit of its kind in more than a decade.
North Korea is subject to multiple rounds of UN Security Council sanctions over its atomic and ballistic missile programmes.
President Trump reacted with guarded optimism. For the first time in many years, a serious effort is being made by all parties concerned. The World is watching and waiting! May be false hope, but the US is ready to go hard in either direction!”