Stockholm: North Korea on Saturday said that working-level talks with the United States have broken off.
“The negotiation did not live up to our expectations and broke down. I am very displeased,” North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator Kim Myong-gil said after holding talks with his US counterpart, Stephen Biegun, outside North Korean Embassy in Sweden.
According to Yonhap News Agency, it was the first working-level meeting between the US and North Korea after the February’s Hanoi Summit. In that meeting, no agreement was reached due to differences over Pyongyang’s demands for sanction waivers in exchange for steps done to dismantle its nuclear programme.
“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,” he added.
The meeting comes after North Korea fired a fresh round of unidentified projectiles off its eastern coast on Wednesday. This came even after the reclusive state said it was ready to hold working-level talks with the US.
In June, Trump and Kim had held an impromptu meeting at the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) where the two leaders agreed to resume working-level talks to put the stalled denuclearisation negotiations back on track.
North Korea has repeatedly insisted that the removal of penalties will help spur economic growth, while the US has reaffirmed that sanctions will not be removed till the communist country completely stops its nuclear weapons programme.