US-North Korea Nuclear Talks Break Down

Renewed nuclear talks between North Korea and the U.S. appear to be short-lived; North Korea said the talks have already broken down. North Korea’s chief negotiator Kim Myong Gil told reporters that Saturday’s talks in Stockholm broke down “entirely due to the United States’ failure to abandon its outdated viewpoint and attitude. The negotiations have not fulfilled our expectations and finally broke off.”

US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus disagreed with North Korea’s negotiator and said his comments “do not reflect the content or the spirit” of the “good discussions.”

On Sunday, North Korea said the Trump administration was “misleading the public opinion by touting ‘good discussions.'” A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said, “We have no intention to hold such sickening negotiations as what happened this time before the US takes a substantial step.”

It appears North Korea is giving the Trump administration until the end of the year as a deadline to change its approach. “As we have clearly identified the way for solving problem, the fate of the future DPRK-U.S. dialogue depends on the US attitude, and the end of this year is its deadline,” the North Korean foreign ministry said in a statement.

These talks were the first between the two nations since the February summit in Vietnam and were the first since John Bolton, who was believed to have sabotaged earlier talks, was fired from his post as National Security Advisor.