North Korea has indicated its willingness to resume talks with the US “very soon” at an undisclosed meeting between high-ranking officials at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) last week, foreign news outlets reported Wednesday.
South Korean soldiers stand guard at Panmunjom at the inter-Korean border. Joint Press Corps
Citing unnamed senior officials from the Donald Trump administration, the Associated Press and Reuters reported that the two sides met at the inter-Korean border sometime last week without specifying the date.
According to the reports, a high-ranking official from the US National Security Council met a North Korean official and delivered photographs of the US President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s meeting at the DMZ in June. They met at Panmunjom on June 30, and stated that working-level talks on denuclearization will be resumed.
The reports also said that the North Korean official at the meeting said that working-level talks with the US will be resumed in the near future.
The reports echo US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s comments that he is hopeful that talks will resume soon. Speaking at an event in Washington on Monday, he said that he hopes there are “creative solutions to unlocking” the US-North Korea deadlock.
The news reports of the talks at the DMZ come on the heels of North Korea’s firing of several short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday last week and on Wednesday. The North also conducted two similar launches in May.
While the North is prohibited from using any form of ballistic missile technology under UN resolutions, Trump has dismissed the missiles from the May launches as insignificant, being “very small” and posing no threat to the US.
Following the missile launches on Thursday last week, the North stated that the missiles were a warning to South Korea, accusing President Moon Jae-in of duplicity in dealing with the North.
While criticizing Seoul, Pyongyang appears cautious not to provoke Washington.
Last week, the North’s Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim inspected a newly built submarine on July 23, and that the vessel will operate within the East Sea.
According to the Japan-based pro-North Korean publication Chosun Shinbo Pyongyang, limiting the submarine’s range of operations to the East Sea is “an expression of the intentions to faithfully carry out the Singapore joint statement” signed by Trump and Kim at their first summit last year.
By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)