Former U.S. nuclear negotiator, North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister resume denuclearization talks at Panmunjom
- 6 years ago
With U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expected to visit Pyongyang this week, working-level officials from North Korea and the U.S. reportedly met at the inter-Korean border over the weekend.
Our Lee Ji-won has more.
It seems as though talks to work out the process of North Korea's denuclearization have kicked off.
A senior U.S. State Department official on Sunday confirmed that U.S. ambassador to the Philippines and former nuclear negotiator, Sung Kim and North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui met again on Sunday at the truce village of Panmunjom on the inter-Korean border.
This comes 19 days after the Pyongyang-Washington summit was held last month and is the first face-to-face meeting between the two sides since Singapore.
While not much is known about the details, the South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo reports that the two exchanged views on the current situation for about an hour.
And with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expected to visit Pyongyang this week, Sunday's meeting is thought to have covered the agenda for Pompeo's visit, mainly, North Korea's denuclearization.
Ambassador Kim and Choe were at the forefront of negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington in the lead up to the Singapore summit.
The two held a series of pre-summit meetings in Panmunjom,... and continued their talks in Singapore, right up until the first meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump.
At that time, reports said the two talked over the complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of North Korea as well as its security guarantee from the U.S.
While follow-up meetings to the June 12th summit were expected to be held soon after the summit, this first publicly known contact between the two sides... was not announced beforehand.
But with Pompeo's upcoming visit to Pyongyang as well as the expectation that these working-level talks will be held again, there's hope the two sides can come up with a framework for their shared goal.
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.
Our Lee Ji-won has more.
It seems as though talks to work out the process of North Korea's denuclearization have kicked off.
A senior U.S. State Department official on Sunday confirmed that U.S. ambassador to the Philippines and former nuclear negotiator, Sung Kim and North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui met again on Sunday at the truce village of Panmunjom on the inter-Korean border.
This comes 19 days after the Pyongyang-Washington summit was held last month and is the first face-to-face meeting between the two sides since Singapore.
While not much is known about the details, the South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo reports that the two exchanged views on the current situation for about an hour.
And with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expected to visit Pyongyang this week, Sunday's meeting is thought to have covered the agenda for Pompeo's visit, mainly, North Korea's denuclearization.
Ambassador Kim and Choe were at the forefront of negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington in the lead up to the Singapore summit.
The two held a series of pre-summit meetings in Panmunjom,... and continued their talks in Singapore, right up until the first meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump.
At that time, reports said the two talked over the complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of North Korea as well as its security guarantee from the U.S.
While follow-up meetings to the June 12th summit were expected to be held soon after the summit, this first publicly known contact between the two sides... was not announced beforehand.
But with Pompeo's upcoming visit to Pyongyang as well as the expectation that these working-level talks will be held again, there's hope the two sides can come up with a framework for their shared goal.
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.