US envoy proposes unconditional meeting with North Korean officials

ANKARA (AA) - The US on Monday offered to meet with North Korean officials "anywhere, anytime, without preconditions," and is hoping for a positive response from Pyongyang.

Speaking during trilateral talks with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Seoul, US Special Envoy for North Korea Sung Kim said he looks forward to a positive response from Pyongyang, Yonhap News Agency reported.

"We continue to hope that the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) will respond positively to our outreach and our offer to meet anywhere, anytime without preconditions," the agency quoted Kim as saying.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Friday that his country should prepare for both "dialogue and confrontation" with the US administration led by President Joe Biden. For the first time, Kim showed his readiness to talks with the Biden administration.

The US envoy arrived in Seoul after Kim’s statement to discuss his strategy with South Korean and Japanese officials.

This is the envoy’s first visit to Seoul after Biden appointed him as special representative for North Korea last month.

During the trilateral talks, the three sides agreed to continue cooperation to make substantive progress toward the complete denuclearization of and building permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula through the early resumption of dialogue with Pyongyang, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Last month, Biden also said the US and South Korea are willing to engage diplomatically with North Korea.

“Our two nations also share a willingness to engage diplomatically with the DPRK to take pragmatic steps that will reduce tensions, as we move toward our ultimate goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Biden told reporters during a news briefing with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in at the White House.

In March, North Korea had turned down an offer by the US for talks, saying dialogue would be possible only if both sides come to "equal footing."

In a statement, the country’s First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui said Washington had been trying to make contact through several channels since mid-February.

Former US President Donald Trump held three successive rounds of talks with North Korea, but was ultimately unable to agree on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid