N. Korea begins conference as U.S. deadline approaches

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has opened a high-profile political conference to discuss how to overcome “harsh trials and difficulties,“state media reported Sunday, days before a year-end deadline set by Pyongyang for Washington to make concessions in nuclear negotiations.

The ruling Workers’ Party meeting is a focus of keen attention as some observers predict North Korea might use the conference to announce it would abandon faltering diplomacy with the U.S. and lift its moratorium on major weapons tests.

The Korean Central News Agency reported that leader Kim Jong Un presided over a plenary meeting of the party’s Central Committee convened in Pyongyang on Saturday. It called the gathering the “first-day session,” suggesting it would continue for at least another day.

KCNA said Kim made a speech on overall state affairs and the work of the

Central Committee, but gave no further details.

After his second summit with President Donald Trump in February in Vietnam failed, Kim gave the U.S. until the end of this year to offer new initiatives to salvage the nuclear negotiations. North Korea suggested a “Christmas gift” would be forthcoming after demanding additional concessions as part of the stalled nuclear talks.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may have reconsidered his planned “gift” to the U.S. amid ongoing highlevel personal diplomacy by President Donald Trump, said National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.

“Multiple administrations, Republican and Democrat, have dealt with this situation without success over the years,” O’Brien said Sunday of North Korea on ABC’s “This Week.” “President Trump took a different tack with personal diplomacy, and so far we’ve had some success.”

“They have a good relationship personally,” O’Brien added of Trump and Kim. “So perhaps he’s reconsidered that, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

O’Brien declined to discuss whether Washington and Pyongyang have had recent discussions beyond noting that “channels of communication” were open.

O’Brien warned that the U.S. is ready to respond should Kim fire additional long-range missiles or conduct further nuclear weapons tests.

“We’ll reserve judgment, but the United States will take action as we do in these situations,” O’Brien said.

Restarting nuclear and ICBM tests would be a blow to Trump, who has boasted that North Korea’s moratorium was a major foreign policy win. But that would also likely completely derail diplomacy with the U.S. and further dim the prospect for North Korea to get badly needed sanctions relief to rebuild its troubled economy, some experts said.