North Korea nuclear issue may be on the agenda at US-China talks in Hawaii

Name: North Korea ‘blows up’ inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong
Uploaded: 2020-06-17T13:25:46.000Z
Duration: 2 min 44 s
Description: North Korea ‘blows up’ inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong

Special envoy Stephen Biegun will join the meeting, but observers say it’s unlikely Beijing and Washington will work together to break deadlock

Tensions are rising after Pyongyang blew up a joint liaison office near the border with South Korea

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Stephen Biegun, the US special representative for North Korea, will join the talks in Hawaii on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

Laura Zhou

Published: 9:25pm, 17 Jun 2020Updated: 10:06pm, 17 Jun 2020

US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun will be part of the American delegation at top-level talks with China in Hawaii, suggesting the stalemate in nuclear disarmament negotiations with Pyongyang could be on the agenda.

But Chinese observers said it was unlikely that Beijing and Washington – at odds on a range of issues – would act together to break the deadlock. Tensions are mounting on the Korean peninsula after Pyongyang blew up an inter-Korean liaison office and threatened military action against the South.

Neither Beijing nor Washington have confirmed the meeting on Wednesday or released an agenda, but a note on the daily public schedules for US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Biegun on Tuesday said they were “on travel to Honolulu, Hawaii”.

The inclusion of Biegun, who is also deputy secretary of state, suggests North Korea could be part of the talks with the Beijing delegation, led by China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi. It will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two sides since August and is believed to be aimed at dialling down tensions ahead of the US presidential election.

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North Korea ‘blows up’ inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong

Zhao Tong, an analyst at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre in Beijing, noted that the situation on the Korean peninsula was deteriorating.

“[It’s] heading in the direction of higher instability and it is widely expected that North Korea may take further action,” Zhao said. “It’s possible that the two sides could have a deep discussion on the North Korea issue.”