Seoul: US ready for talks with N. Korea on denuclearisation

The Foreign Ministry says the US special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, made the comments during a meeting with his South Korean counterpart on Friday.

U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun attends a meeting with South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon at the Unification Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday. North Korea said Thursday it will never unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons unless the United States first removes what Pyongyang called a nuclear threat.

South Korea says the US has reaffirmed it’s ready to hold talks with North Korea to achieve denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

The Foreign Ministry says the US special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, made the comments during a meeting with his South Korean counterpart on Friday.

Mr. Biegun’s remarks come as North Korea is escalating its calls for Washington to work out new proposals to salvage deadlocked nuclear diplomacy.

The second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam in February collapsed without reaching any agreement.

During their first summit in Singapore last year, Kim pledged to work toward complete denuclearisation of the peninsula.

Mr. Biegun was quoted as saying he’s ready for “constructive” talks to develop the commitments made during the Singapore summit.