Pyongyang rejects reviving talks

SEOUL — North Korea reiterated Saturday it has no immediate plans to resume nuclear negotiations with the United States unless Washington discards what it describes as “hostile” polices toward Pyongyang.

The statement by North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui came after President Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, said last week that Trump might seek another summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as an “October surprise” ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

South Korean President Moon Jaein, who had lobbied hard to help set up the nowstalled negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang, also expressed hope that Trump and Kim would meet again before the election.

Kim and Trump have met three times since embarking on their highstakes nuclear diplomacy in 2018, but negotiations have faltered since their second summit in February last year in Vietnam, where the Americans rejected North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capability. Kim entered 2020 vowing to bolster his nuclear deterrent in face of “gangsterlike” U.S. sanctions and pressure. Choe’s statement followed a series of similar declarations by the North that it would no longer give Trump the highprofile meetings he could boast of as his foreign policy achievements unless it gets something substantial in return.

“Is it possible to hold dialogue or have any dealings with the U.S. which persists in the hostile policy toward the DPRK in disregard of the agreements already made at the past summit?” Choe said, referring to North Korea by its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“We do not feel any need to sit facetoface with the U.S., as it does not consider the DPRKU.S. dialogue as nothing more than a tool for grappling its political crisis,” she said.

Some analysts believe

North Korea would avoid serious negotiations with the United States at least until the November presidential election as there’s a chance U.S. leadership could change.

The North in recent months have also been raising pressure against South Korea, blowing up an interKorean liaison office in its territory and threatening to abandon a bilateral military agreement aimed at reducing tensions. It follows months of frustration over Seoul’s unwillingness to defy U.S.led sanctions and restart joint economic projects that would breathe life into the North’s broken economy.

Kim TongHyung is an Associated Press writer.