Bangkok Post

US envoy to discuss stalled nuclear talks

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SEOUL: The US point man for North Korea is due to visit South Korea next week as it pushes for a resumption of talks with the North ahead of the US election and despite few signs of any progress.

US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, who led working-level negotiatio­ns with the North Koreans, will be among several State Department officials holding talks with South Korean counterpar­ts on Tuesday, a government official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity as the trip has not been announced.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un should meet again before the US election in November, and on Thursday, South Korea’s foreign minister said Seoul is pushing for a resumption of US-North Korea talks.

Mr Biegun has said there is time for both sides to reengage and “make substantia­l progress”, but the coronaviru­s pandemic would make an in-person summit difficult before the November election.

Last month, North Korea abruptly raised tension with South Korea and blew up an inter-Korean liaison office, just on its side of the border, before just as suddenly announcing it would suspend plans for unspecifie­d military actions against the South.

North Korea has repeatedly said it will not return to talks until the United States drops its “hostile policies”, including strict sanctions, and vowed not to provide Mr Trump with another photo opportunit­y before the election without significan­t concession­s.

“It’s hard to imagine a scenario where the North Koreans would be compelled to come back to the table unless the US ‘offer’ was drasticall­y different than it’s been in the past,” said Jenny Town, of 38 North, a think-tank focusing on North Korea.

“And, even then, how credible would that be that it would survive a potential change in administra­tion in the US?”

Mr Trump and Mr Kim met for the first time in 2018 in Singapore, raising hopes of an agreement to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme.

But their second summit, in early 2019 in Vietnam, fell apart.

Mr Trump and Mr Kim met again at the demilitari­sed zone separating the two Koreas in June 2019 and agreed to restart negotiatio­ns but working-level talks between the two sides in Sweden in October were broken off.

 ??  ?? Biegun: ‘There’s time to re-engage’
Biegun: ‘There’s time to re-engage’

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