North Korea rebuffs US offer of nuclear talks in December

Pyongyang’s nuclear negotiator described the proposal as having the ‘sinister aim of appeasing us in a bid to pass with ease’ a year-end deadline

Statement came after the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman reaffirmed that the US was ready to use the ‘full range’ of its capabilities to protect South Korea

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US President Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June. Photo: AP

Published: 10:13pm, 14 Nov 2019Updated: 1:58am, 15 Nov 2019

North Korea said on Thursday that it has been offered a fresh meeting with the United States but is uninterested in more talks aimed at “appeasing us” ahead of a year-end deadline Pyongyang has set for Washington to show more flexibility in their negotiations.

Kim Myong-gil, the North’s nuclear negotiator, said in a report carried by state media that Stephen Biegun, his US counterpart who jointly led last month’s failed denuclearisation talks in Stockholm, had offered through a third country to meet again.

North Korea’s nuclear negotiator Kim Myong-gil last month in Sweden. Photo: Kyodo

Kim and Biegun met last month in the Swedish capital for the first time since US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed in June to reopen negotiations that have been stalled since a failed summit in Vietnam in February.

But the meeting fell apart, with Kim saying the US side failed to present a new approach.

“If the negotiated solution of issues is possible, we are ready to meet with the US at any place and any time,” Kim Myong-gil said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.