SEOUL (SOUTH KOREA) – US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun is slated to visit Seoul next week in a bid to push for restarting discussions with Pyongyang ahead of the US election.
Biegun, who had undertaken several working-level discussions with North Korea, and state department officials will hold talks with their South Korean counterparts on Tuesday.
President Moon Jae-in of South Korea said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump should meet once again before the US polls. Seoul foreign minister said on Thursday that the country is trying facilitate Washington-Pyongyang talks.
Though Biegun said there is time to “make substantial progress”, an in-person meeting before the election in November is difficult given the crisis triggered by the pandemic.
Pyongyang has said many times it would not resume discussions until Washington put an end to its “hostile policies”, including strict sanctions.
President Trump and his North Korean counterpart first met in Singapore in 2018. During that visit, there were hopes of an agreement seeking North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme.
However, their meeting in Vietnam last year ended in a fiasco.
John Bolton, former national security adviser of Trump, said on Thursday that the president is likely to seek yet another summit with Kim in October ahead of the poll.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field