The U. S. has taken a wait-and-see approach with North Korea but remained firm that its denuclearization was the endgame after a high-level delegation to th
The U. S. has taken a wait-and-see approach with North Korea but remained firm that its denuclearization was the endgame after a high-level delegation to the Winter Olympics said the reclusive country was open to talks with Washington.
“We will see if Pyongyang’s message today, that it is willing to hold talks, represents the first steps along the path to denuclearization,” U. S. press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “In the meantime, the United States and the world must continue to make clear that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs are a dead end.”
During Sunday’s closing ceremony for the Pyeongchang Winter Games, the office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced that the leader of a North Korean delegation to the Olympics said his country is willing to hold talks with the U. S. amid tensions with the administration of President Donald Trump over Pyongyang’s nuclear arms and missile programs.
The North has “ample intentions of holding talks with the United States,” Moon’s office quoted the official, Kim Yong Chol, as saying. The North’s delegation also agreed that “South-North relations and U. S.-North Korean relations should be improved together,” the statement added.
Sanders said the U. S., South Korea and the international community “broadly agree” that denuclearization must be the ultimate result of any dialogue with North Korea.
“As President Trump has said, there is a brighter path available for North Korea if it chooses denuclearization,” Sanders said.
Washington has repeatedly said that the issue of denuclearization must be a part of any talks with Pyongyang. The North has asserted that its nuclear program, which it sees as a deterrent to invasion, is nonnegotiable.
Kim Yong Chol delivered the message just ahead of the games’ closing ceremony in a meeting with Moon, and later sat in a VIP box that included members of the U. S. delegation to the event. The U. S. delegation to the closing ceremony was led by Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Trump, and included Allison Hooker, the national security council adviser for Korean issues.
