Pyongyang Expects Talks With US In 'Few Weeks' Amid Stalled Progress, Missile Tests

Pyongyang Expects Talks With US in 'Few Weeks' Amid Stalled Progress, Missile Tests

Pyongyang and Washington may hold working-level negotiations in coming weeks, with their outcome fully dependent on the United States, the Department of US Affairs of the North Korean Foreign Ministry announced on Monday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2019) Pyongyang and Washington may hold working-level negotiations in coming weeks, with their outcome fully dependent on the United States, the Department of US Affairs of the North Korean Foreign Ministry announced on Monday.

Earlier, the North Korean government expressed readiness to resume the negotiations with the United States in the second half of September, as the peace process has been stalled against the background of Pyongyang's regular missile tests. Back then, the US State Deportment said that it could not announce the possible date for talks.

"I hope that the working-level negotiations expected to be held in a few weeks will be a good meeting between the DPRK and the U.S.," the department's director general said in a statement, quoted by the Korean Central news Agency.

He, however, warned that the DPRK-US dialogue could either produce another opportunity or end up in a new crisis.

"In this sense, the upcoming working-level negotiations will be an occasion decisive of the future road of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue," the official noted.

North Korea's stance, meanwhile, remains invariable, with the discussion of denuclearization only possible "when threats and hurdles endangering our system security and obstructing our development are clearly removed beyond all doubt," according to the diplomat.

"Whether the DPRK-U.S. negotiations will be a window for chance or an occasion to precipitate crisis is entirely up to the U.S.," he reiterated.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been engaged in dialogue with US President Donald Trump to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula for over a year. However, the talks have since reached a deadlock, with Pyongyang calling for more flexibility on the part of Washington, particularly with regard to sanctions.