US ready for nuclear talks with North Korea: Envoy

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - Washington is ready for fresh denuclearization talks with Pyongyang, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea said Friday.

Stephen Biegun told his South Korean counterpart, Lee Do-hoon, during a meeting in Seoul that the U.S. was "ready to hold talks with North Korea to move their denuclearization negotiations forward in a simultaneous and parallel manner," Yonhap news reported.

Talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un broke down last February after Trump walked out mid-way from a summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Trump will hold a summit with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in on Saturday in Osaka, Japan where both are attending a G20 summit.

"Biegun reaffirmed that [the U.S.] is ready to hold constructive talks with the North to move the commitments of the June 12 Singapore Joint Declaration between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un forward in a simultaneous and parallel manner," Yonhap quoted a South Korean foreign ministry statement.

North Korea said on Thursday that the U.S. would need to formulate a new agenda for any dialogue to resume.

Warning Seoul to not meddle in relations between Pyongyang and Washington, Kwon Jong Gun, Director-General of the North Korea's Foreign Ministry's department of American affairs, said the U.S. "should come out to the table for the DPRK-U.S. dialogue with a correct method of calculation and the time limit is until the end of this year."

However, Biegun said in Seoul that the upcoming meeting between Moon and Trump would "serve as an important opportunity for peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula."