North Korea, US to hold working-level denuclearisation talks on Oct 5

 rth Korea and United States have agreed to resume nuclear negotiations this weekend following a months-long stalemate over withdrawal of sanctions in exchange for disarmament, a senior rth Korean diplomat said Tuesday. Choe Son Hui, rth Korea’s first vice minister of foreign affairs, said two nations will have preliminary contact on Friday before holding working-level talks on Saturday.

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statement released by rth Korean state media

In a statement released by rth Korea’s official Korean Central News ncy, Choe expressed optimism over outcome of meeting but did t say where it would take place. “It is my expectation that working-level negotiations would accelerate positive development of DPRK-U.S. relations,” Choe said in statement, using an abbreviation for rth Korea’s formal name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“I can confirm that U.S. and DPRK officials plan to meet within next week. I do t have furr details to share on meeting,” said State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus, who is travelling with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Rome. Nuclear negotiations have been at a standstill for months following a February summit between rth Korean leer Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump in Hai, Vietnam. Those talks broke down after U.S. rejected rth Korean demands for bro sanctions relief in exchange for partially surrendering its nuclear capabilities.

rth Korea followed summit with belligerent rhetoric and a slew of short-range weapons tests that were widely seen as an attempt to gain lever ahe of a possible resumption of negotiations. Choe’s anuncement came after rth Korea praised Trump last month for suggesting that Washington may pursue an unspecified “new method” in nuclear negotiations with rth. rth Korea also has welcomed Trump’s decision to fire hawkish former National Security viser John Bolton, who vocated a “Libya model” of unilateral denuclearization as a template for rth Korea.

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South Korean President welcomes decision

2004 disarmament of Libya is seen by rth Korea as a deeply provocative comparison because Libyan leer Moammar Ghafi was killed following U.S.-supported military action in his country seven years after giving up a rudimentary nuclear program that was far less vanced than rth Korea’s. office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who lobbied hard to set up first summit between Kim and Trump last year in Singapore, welcomed Choe’s anuncement and expressed hope that resumed talks would result in “substantial progress” in denuclearization and stabilization of peace. That could be a tall order. In high-stakes diplomacy between Trump and Kim, which has been driven chiefly by personalities of leers rar than an established diplomatic process, working-level meetings have been useful for fleshing out logistics of summits but unproductive in hammering out details of a nuclear deal that has eluded countries for deces.

stalemate of past months has revealed fundamental differences between two sides. rth Korea says it will never unilaterally surrender its nuclear weapons and missiles and insists that U.S.-led sanctions against it should be lifted first before any progress in negotiations. Trump ministration has vowed to maintain robust ecomic pressure until rth Korea takes real steps toward fully and verifiably relinquishing its nuclear program.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said progress in working-level negotiations would depend on several factors, including wher Kim empowers his officials to negotiate concrete steps and wher Trump ministration embraces “a phased approach where summits and sanctions relief must be earned, but denuclearization is t decided all at once.”

re are doubts about wher Kim would ever voluntarily deal away from an arsenal that he may see as his strongest guarantee of survival.

In his first public appearance since his departure from White House, Bolton on Monday gave a characteristically pessimistic outlook on prospects for nuclear negotiations with rth and challenged Trump’s foreign policy without directly mentioning president. At a forum in Washington hosted by Center for Strategic and International Studies, Bolton said Kim has me a “strategic decision” to do whatever he can to keep his country’s nuclear weapons and that is an “unacceptable” threat to world.

“Under current circumstances, he will never give up nuclear weapons voluntarily,” Bolton said. “This is a government that has essentially violated every international agreement it has ever me.” After ir Singapore summit in June 2018, Trump and Kim issued a vague statement calling for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing how or when it would occur. lack of substance and fruitless working-level talks set up failure in Hai, which Americans blamed on what y said were excessive rth Korean demands for sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an ing nuclear facility in Yongbyon. Trump and Kim met for third time at inter-Korean border on June 30 and agreed that working-level talks between countries should resume.

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