North Korea says it has no plans for talks with US

rth Korea on Saturday reiterated it has immediate plans to resume nuclear negotiations with United States unless Washington discards what it describes as “hostile” polices toward Pyongyang. statement by rth Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui came days after President Donald Trump's former national security viser, John Bolton, told reporters that Trump might seek ar summit with rth Korean leer Kim Jong Un as an “October surprise” ahe of U.S. presidential election.

Kim and Trump have met three times since embarking on ir high-stakes nuclear diplomacy in 2018, but negotiations have faltered since ir second summit in February last year in Vietnam, where Americans rejected rth 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 “gangster-like” U.S. sanctions and pressure. Choe's statement followed a series of similar declarations by rth that it would longer gift Trump with high-profile 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 US which persists in hostile policy toward DPRK in disregard of agreements alrey me at past summit?” Choe said, referring to rth Korea by its formal name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

“We do t feel any need to sit face-to-face with U.S., as it does t consider DPRK-U.S. dialogue as thing more than a tool for grappling its political crisis,” she said.

Some analysts believe rth Korea would avoid serious negotiations with United States at least until vember presidential election as re's a chance U.S. leership could change. rth in recent months have also been ramping up pressure against South Korea, blowing up an inter-Korean liaison office in its territory and threatening to abandon a bilateral military agreement aimed at reduce tensions. It follows months of frustration over Seoul's unwillingness to defy U.S.-led sanctions and restart joint ecomic projects that would brea life into rth's broken ecomy.