October 6, 2019
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea said on Sunday that there was no way United States would bring alternative plans for their stalled nuclear talks within two weeks after negotiations in Sweden between the two countries broke down at the weekend.
The United States and North Korea were holding working-level talks in Sweden but these were broken off on Saturday. The U.S. State Department said it had accepted Sweden’s invitation to return for more discussions with Pyongyang in two weeks.
North Korea said the ball was now in Washington’s court, warning again that it would only wait until the end of the year for the United States to change course.
“We have no intention to hold such sickening negotiations as … happened this time (in Sweden) before the U.S. takes a substantial step to make complete and irreversible withdrawal of the hostile policy toward the DPRK,” KCNA state news agency cited a spokesperson for North Korea’s foreign ministry as saying, referring to the official name of North Korea.
North Korea reiterated the year-end deadline that leader Kim Jong Un set for the United States to show more flexibility in the talks, which fell apart in February during his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.
In June, the two leaders then met again in Panmunjom, the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, and agreed to restart working-level talks.
But the North Korean foreign ministry said Washington had made no preparations for the talks in Sweden but only sought to serve its own political aims.
“The U.S. is spreading a completely ungrounded story that both sides are open to meet after two weeks…it is not likely at all that it can produce a proposal commensurate to the expectations of the DPRK and to the concerns of the world in just fortnight,” the foreign ministry spokesperson said.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Josh Smith; Editing by Jane Merriman)
