U.S. envoy arrives for Korea nuke talks

SEOUL, South Korea — U.S. President Joe Biden’s special envoy for North Korea arrived in South Korea on Saturday for discussions over stalled nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang.

Sung Kim’s visit comes amid fresh tensions over ongoing U.S.-South Korean military exercises, which the North has described as an invasion rehearsal and led to it threatening unspecified countermeasures that would leave the allies facing a “security crisis.”

Kim will meet his South Korean counterpart Noh Kyu-duk on Monday and plans to hold separate talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov, who also arrived in Seoul on Saturday. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry and the U.S. State Department didn’t immediately mention any plan for three-way talks with the Russians.

The State Department said Kim’s meetings with Noh and South Korean officials are aimed at discussing the “situation on the Korean Peninsula and continue close coordination on the way forward.”

The U.S. and South Korea began a nine-day joint military exercise Monday, which Seoul’s Defense Ministry said is mostly computer-simulated and won’t involve live field training.

Earlier, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, released a statement saying that the joint drills were the “most vivid expression of the U.S. hostile policy” toward North Korea and that the North will work faster to strengthen its preemptive strike capabilities.