The US Secretary of State has invited North Korea’s foreign minister for talks next week and aims to achieve denuclearisation by 2021.
The United States says it’s ready to resume talks with North Korea immediately, aiming to complete denuclearisation by 2021, following the Pyongyang summit between the leaders of North and South.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he has invited North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho to meet in New York next week.
The latest move follows commitments by Kim Jong Un at his talks with Moon Jae-in. The North Korean leader says he has agreed to close a major missile launch site, and on a path to denuclearisation.
On the final day of their three-day summit, Moon and Kim visited Mount Paektu, a volcano near the Chinese border with the North that is part of Korean folklore. The South Korean president said he had long wished to trek in the area and now believed that “Chairman Kim will make that dream come true”.
Earlier, Moon was cheered as he spoke of denuclearisation in a speech to 150,000 North Koreans.
Little progress had been made since Donald Trump’s summit with Kim Jong Un in June, and Pompeo cancelled a planned trip to Pyongyang in August. The mood now is upbeat again – although critics say there is little detail in North Korea’s commitments to hold it to account.
“This will mark the beginning of negotiations to transform US-DPRK (North Korea) relations through the process of rapid denuclearisation of North Korea, to be completed by January 2021, as committed by Chairman Kim, and to construct a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula,” the US Secretary of State said in a statement.
