Khaleej Times

N. Korea ‘in talks to free US detainees’

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seoul — North Korea is in talks with the US and Sweden to release three jailed Americans, reports said, as diplomatic activities intensifie­d ahead of Pyongyang’s planned summits with Washington and Seoul.

The release of the three KoreanAmer­icans is under discussion through multiple channels more than a week after President Donald Trump agreed to meet the North’s Kim Jong Un, the reports said.

Pyongyang has yet to confirm it even made the US summit offer — relayed by Seoul envoys who had met Kim in Pyongyang — but South Korea said he had “given his word” about his commitment to denucleari­sation.

Trump’s stunning announceme­nt has triggered a race to set a credible agenda for what would be historic talks between the two leaders.

Seoul-based MBC TV station reported that Pyongyang and Washington had “practicall­y reached” a final agreement on the release of US citizens Kim Haksong, Kim Sang-duk and Kim Dong-chul.

“They are hammering out details over the timing of the release,” it quoted a South Korean diplomatic source as saying.

The negotiatio­n was held through the North’s mission to the United Nations and the US State Department — an unofficial avenue of communicat­ion dubbed the “New York channel”, the source said. CNN said the prisoners’ release was also discussed at threeday talks in Stockholm between the North’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Swedish counterpar­t Margot Wallstrom that ended on Saturday.

Sweden represents Washington’s interests in the North. It raised the issue of American detainees to “move things in the right direction”, CNN quoted one source as saying. —

They are hammering out details over the timing of the release A South Korean diplomatic

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