A fresh attempt at denuclearization talks between U.S. and North Korean officials broke down within a day, Pyongyang’s top nuclear negotiator announced Saturday.
After meeting with U.S. special envoy Stephen Biegun in Sweden, Kim Myong Gil accused American officials of walking into the working-level talks “empty-handed.”
“The negotiation did not live up to our expectations and broke down. I am very displeased,” he said outside of the North Korean Embassy in Stockholm. “It is entirely because the U.S. has not discarded its old stance and attitude that the negotiation this time failed to produce any results.”
Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during an appearance with his Greek counterpart in Athens, said it was “too early” to know if there was any progress being made with respect to North Korea.
“I’m hopeful that we will. We came with a set of ideas. We hope that the North Koreans came with a good spirit and a willingness to try to move forward to implement what President Trump and Chairman Kim agreed to back in Singapore,” Pompeo said. “And so our team is on the ground. It’s a broad team with a full range of expertise to deal with the broad range of issues related to the — every element of that agreement. There were four pillars that the two leaders agreed to, and we — we’re very hopeful that we will make some progress.”
Kim said North Korea would be willing to talk again if the United States “sincerely” responds to its demands.
The failed talks constituted the first official meeting between U.S. and North Korean officials since Trump failed to reach a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam. The U.S. declined to accept North Korean demands for broad sanctions relief in exchange for giving up some of its nuclear capabilities.
[Also read: ‘Meet again in two weeks’: State Department denies North Korea talks broke down]
Trump signaled progress in his effort to convince North Korea to resume negotiations when he met Kim at the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea in June.
But North Korea has proven to be a volatile negotiating partner, underscored by how Pyongyang conducted a missile test off its southeast coast and into the Sea of Japan just hours after planned working-level talks were announced last week.
Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton warned at a forum held Monday that Kim would do “whatever he can” to hold on to nuclear weapons capability. Bolton held hawkish foreign policy views, which clashed with Trump at times. He was forced out of the White House last month.
