President thaws over idea of talks with North Korea

THE US would like to have talks with North Korea, Donald Trump said yesterday, but “only under the right conditions”, as he offered his first, cautious response to Pyongyang’s offer of negotiations.

Washington has been ramping up diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programmes, but hopes of a breakthrough have risen after a warming in relations between North and South Korea during the Winter Olympics.

The US president, speaking with US state governors at the White House, said China had done more on North Korea than it ever had before, following requests from his administration. Asked about North Korea’s offer of talks, made ahead of the Olympics closing ceremony on Sunday, he said: “We’ll see what happens.”

Meanwhile, Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, has encouraged all sides to seize the moment and “lower the bar” to talks. His words suggest impatience that Washington continues to insist the end result of talks be a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. Mr Moon used a meeting with Liu Yandong, the Chinese vice premier, to suggest that the key protagonists should both make concessions. “The US needs to lower its bar for dialogue and the North, too, must show its willingness to denuclearise,” Mr Moon said yesterday, according to a government spokesman.

North Korea’s offer of talks with the US was unexpected, after months dominated by accusations. But the Olympics, held in South Korea, have brought fresh impetus to diplomatic efforts.

Kang Kyung-wha, South Korea’s foreign minister, told the United Nation’s Human Rights Council in Geneva: “It is imperative to ensure that the spirit of Pyongyang lives long after the Olympic Games so that peace can take firm root on the Korean peninsula, and the dire human rights situation in the North can be improved.”