WASHINGTON: In the latest attempt to defuse the crisis over North Korea’s weapons program, South Korea urged Washington and Pyongyang to give ground to allow for talks and US President Donald Trump reiterated he would negotiate with North Korea, but only under the right conditions.
“Recently, North Korea has shown it is open to actively engaging the United States in talks and the United States is talking about the importance of dialogue,” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said during a meeting in Seoul with Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong.
“There is a need for the United States to lower the threshold for talks with North Korea, and North Korea should show it is willing to denuclearize. It’s important the United States and North Korea sit down together quickly,” he said, according to a statement from his office.
South Korea, a close US ally, has engaged in a flurry of talks with North Korean officials since January, hoping to use the South’s just-concluded Winter Olympics as a catalyst for rapprochement.
But the United States has insisted that any future talks with North Korea must be aimed at that country’s denuclearization, something Pyongyang has rejected. North Korea on Sunday expressed willingness for dialogue, Seoul says.
Trump, who has been pushing a global sanctions campaign against North Korea to force it to give up development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States, reiterated that he would like to have talks with Pyongyang, but only if the conditions were right.
“They want to talk. We want to talk also, only under the right conditions. Otherwise we’re not talking,” Trump said while hosting a meeting with state governors at the White House.
“We’ll see what happens. That’s my attitude, we’ll see what happens.”
Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged taunts that have raised fears of war, and Trump last August threatened to go beyond sanctions by threatening “fire and fury” although his administration says it prefers a diplomatic solution to the crisis. Reuters