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North Korea has no plans to hold talks with US, diplomat says

This statement was addressed to the forces in South Korea that "came out to offer "a helping hand" allegedly to solve the DPRK-U.S. relations which are getting more and more complicated"

© AP Photo/Lee Jin-man

TASS, July 7. North Korea is not planning to sit down at the negotiating table with the United States, Director General of the Department of U.S. Affairs of the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kwon Jong Gun said in a statement published by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Earlier, North Korea’s First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son-hui said in comment on reports about a potential summit with the US that Pyongyang did not need to hold talks with the US.

"Some people make self-centered interpretation of our first vice-foreign minister's statement that it is "a message urging the U.S. to act" and "a kind of asking for more concession," Kwon Jong Gun said. "Explicitly speaking once again, we have no intention to sit face to face with U.S."

This statement was addressed to the forces in South Korea that "came out to offer "a helping hand" allegedly to solve the DPRK-U.S. relations which are getting more and more complicated."

The first-ever summit between the United States and North Korea was held on June 12, 2018 in Singapore. US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a joint document, in which Pyongyang committed to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula in return for US security guarantees.

However, the second bilateral summit in Hanoi did not yield any result. The two leaders also held a brief meeting in Panmunjom, a village on the border between two Koreas, on June 30, 2019 and agreed to resume talks at a working level, but the following meeting of working groups in Stockholm was futile.

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