U.S. envoy offers to meet North Korea anywhere anytime
21 June, 2021
The U.S. special representative for North Korea on Monday wanted to meet with Pyongyang "anywhere, anytime, without preconditions", without public contact so far between your Biden administration and the nuclear-armed nation.
Sung Kim's remarks came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the other day gave his first a reaction to Washington's recent overview of its approach to his isolated country, saying Pyongyang must plan both "dialogue and confrontation".
The Biden administration has previously promised a "practical, calibrated approach", including diplomatic efforts, to persuade the impoverished North to stop its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
"We continue steadily to hope that the DPRK will respond positively to your outreach, and our offer to meet up anywhere anytime without preconditions," U.S. envoy Kim said throughout a five-day visit to Washington's ally South Korea, referring to the North by its official name.
The other day, Kim Jong Un said the country's food situation was "tense", sounding the alarm in a country with a moribund agricultural sector which has long struggled to feed itself and is currently under self-imposed isolation to try to protect itself against the coronavirus pandemic.
Pyongyang's state-run KCTV on Sunday reported leader Kim and top officials had discussed "emergency measures" to tackle the country's "current food crisis".
North Korea has long insisted that it has already established no cases of the virus -- a claim that analysts doubt -- nonetheless it has paid much economic price for its self-imposed blockade.
Trade with China, its economic lifeline, has slowed to a trickle, while all international aid work faces tight restrictions.
Envoy Kim on Monday urged U.N. security council members -- a group which include China -- to totally implement resolutions against Pyongyang, which limit North Korean imports of oil and its exports of coal, textiles and fish, among other activities.
"We will continue steadily to implement all U.N. Security Council resolutions addressing the DPRK," he said, using the North's official name.
"We also urge U.N. member states, especially U.N. Security Council members, to accomplish the same to handle the threat posed to the international community by the DPRK."
Source: japantoday.com
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