“I saw the remark that she made,” Mr. Pompeo said of Ms. Choe. “We are hopeful that we can continue to have conversations and negotiations.”

Mr. Pompeo added that Mr. Kim had made multiple promises during the Hanoi summit meeting to Mr. Trump that he would take steps to wind down his nuclear program. Despite the unpredictable messaging, he said, the administration would continue to take Mr. Kim at his word.

Mr. Bolton, for his part, told reporters at the White House that any suggestion that he and Mr. Pompeo undermined the negotiations were inaccurate, and that he had been in touch with national security officials in South Korea about the remarks.

“We’ve discussed their reaction and our reaction,” Mr. Bolton said. “I’d like to speak further within the U.S. government before we respond.”

The office of South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, who did much to broker the talks between the North and the United States, said it was closely monitoring the situation. “Whatever the situation, our government will try its best to help resume North Korea-U.S. negotiations,” it said in a statement.

The breakdown of the Hanoi meeting revealed a wide gap between North Korea and the United States over how to proceed with denuclearization.

North Korea insisted, as it has before, on moving in phases. In Hanoi, Mr. Kim offered to dismantle the plutonium, uranium-enrichment and other facilities at its Yongbyon site, north of Pyongyang, and demanded that Washington in return lift crucial sanctions that have been imposed on the North since 2016.</s>This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com.

North Korea’s negotiations with the United States regarding nuclear disarmament may have taken a turn for the worse after a senior official threatened to suspend further talks. The latest development comes after both sides were unable to reach an agreement following a U.S.-North Korea summit last month. North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui [...]</s>March 15 (UPI) -- North Korea is considering resuming its nuclear testing program, a senior Pyongyang official said Friday.

Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said the United States must change its position on North Korean denuclearization in order to continue a moratorium on testing, The New York Times reported.

Choe also said Friday that personal relations between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump are "still good" and the "chemistry is mysteriously wonderful." She added, though, that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton have created an "atmosphere of hostility and mistrust" that ended negotiations at a summit in Vietnam in February.

"We have no intention to yield to the U.S. demands [at the Hanoi summit] in any form, nor are we willing to engage in negotiations of this kind," she told reporters at a news conference in Pyongyang, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

The remarks follow reports that North Korea may be preparing for another rocket launch. Recent satellite photographs indicate Pyongyang has rebuilt a rocket launch pad. North Korea had conducted a number of rocket tests before and immediately after Trump took office, but Kim agreed to stop them after new dialogue with the U.S. president.

Choe said Kim now has reservations about continuing negotiations with Trump after the summit failure in Hanoi.

The United States did not immediately respond to the comments. This week, a U.S. representative for North Korea said the U.S. administration would not accept a phased denuclearization, but insisted U.S. and North Korean officials are still closely engaged on the subject.</s>SEOUL: North Korea is considering suspending talks with the United States and may rethink a ban on missile and nuclear tests unless Washington makes concessions, a senior diplomat said on Friday, according to news reports from the North’s capital.

 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in Washington the United States wished to continue talks with North Korea and had “every expectation” that its leader, Kim Jong Un, would stick to pledges not to resume nuclear and missile testing.

 North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui blamed top US officials for the breakdown of last month’s summit in Hanoi between Kim and US President Donald Trump, Russia’s TASS news agency and the Associated Press reported.

 “We have no intention to yield to the US demands (at the Hanoi summit) in any form, nor are we willing to engage in negotiations of this kind,” TASS quoted Choe as telling reporters in the North Korean capital.

 Choe said Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton “created the atmosphere of hostility and mistrust and, therefore, obstructed the constructive effort for negotiations between the supreme leaders of North Korea and the United States”, TASS quoted Choe as saying.

 Kim is set to make an official announcement soon on his position on the denuclearization talks with the United States and the North’s further actions, TASS added, citing Choe.

 Choe said Washington threw away a golden opportunity at the summit and warned that Kim might rethink a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests, the AP reported.

 “I want to make it clear that the gangster-like stand of the US will eventually put the situation in danger,” AP quoted Choe as saying.

 But, she added: “Personal relations between the two supreme leaders are still good and the chemistry is mysteriously wonderful.”

 Bolton told reporters outside the White House that he had seen the statement from the North Korean official and that “I think that’s inaccurate.” He said he had spoken to his South Korean counterpart but wanted to consult with other US officials before responding further.

 Pompeo told reporters it was not the first time he had been called “gangster-like” by North Korea. “And following that we continued to have very professional conversations… I have every expectation we will be able to continue to do that,” he said.

 Pompeo said he had seen Choe’s remarks, and she had left open the possibility that negotiations would continue.

 “It’s the administration’s desire that we continue to have conversations around this,” Pompeo said. “As the president said when he was in Hanoi, the offer that they made simply didn’t rise to the level that was acceptable, given what they were asking for in exchange.”

 Kim had committed multiple times to Trump in Hanoi that he would not to resume nuclear or missile testing, Pompeo said. “That’s Chairman Kim’s word. We have every expectation he will live up to that commitment.”

 South Korea, which has an ambitious agenda of engagement with North Korea that is dependent on Pyongyang and Washington resolving at least some of their differences, said it was too early to tell what Choe’s comments might mean.

 “We cannot judge the current situation based solely on Vice Minister Choe Son Hui’s statements. We are watching the situation closely. In any situation, our government will endeavour for the restart of North Korea-US negotiations,” South Korea’s presidential Blue House said in a statement.

 Choe’s comments echoed the North’s usual rhetoric at tense points in its dealings with Washington. North Korea expert Joshua Pollack said North Korea may be delivering an ultimatum.

 “They’re putting down a marker, saying which way things are headed if nothing changes,” Pollack, of the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, said.

 Joel Wit of the 38 North think tank said North Korea was likely toughening its negotiating position after the collapse of the Hanoi summit.

 “It is likely to gauge the US reaction in the days ahead before making a decision to launch a rocket,” he said.

 The second Trump-Kim summit broke down over differences about US demands for Pyongyang to denuclearize and North Korea’s demand for dramatic relief from international sanctions imposed for its nuclear and missile tests, which it pursued for years in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

 Choe had said after the Hanoi talks that Kim might lose his commitment to pursue a deal with the United States after seeing it reject a request to lift some sanctions in return for the North destroying its main known nuclear complex.

 In Beijing, Premier Li Keqiang urged patience and further dialogue between North Korea and the United States.

 Earlier on Friday, a spokeswoman for South Korea’s Ministry of Unification told a press briefing that the weekly inter-Korean meeting scheduled at a liaison office in Kaesong, North Korea, had been cancelled after the North Koreans said they would not be sending senior officials. — Reuters</s>North Korea threatened on Friday to suspend negotiations with the Trump administration over the North’s nuclear arms program and said its leader, Kim Jong Un, would soon decide whether to resume nuclear and missile tests.

Addressing diplomats and foreign correspondents at a news conference in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said that personal relations between Kim and Trump were “still good and the chemistry is mysteriously wonderful.” But she said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, had created an “atmosphere of hostility and mistrust” that thwarted the top leaders’ negotiations in Hanoi, Vietnam, last month.

After the Hanoi meeting ended without a deal, the North Korean leader had serious doubts about the merits of continuing negotiations with Trump, Choe said.

“We have neither the intention to compromise with the U.S. in any form nor much less the desire or plan to conduct this kind of negotiation,” said Choe, according a report from Pyongyang by The Associated Press, which has a bureau there. She also said the North might end its self-imposed moratorium on tests of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. “Whether to maintain this moratorium or not is the decision of our chairman of the state affairs commission,” she said, referring to Kim by one of his several titles. “He will make his decision in a short period of time.”

In a briefing with reporters Friday, Pompeo sought to lower any tensions related to Choe’s comments, framing them as nothing more than rhetorical speed bumps that tend to follow both summits. To make the point, he noted that he had been assigned a “gangsterlike” reputation by the North Koreans but the name-calling had done nothing to hinder negotiations. “I saw the remark that she made,” Pompeo said of Choe. “We are hopeful that we can continue to have conversations and negotiations.”

Pompeo added that Kim had made multiple promises during the Hanoi summit that he would take steps to wind down his nuclear program. Despite the unpredictable messaging, he said, the administration would continue to take Kim at his word.

Bolton, for his part, told reporters at the White House that any suggestion that he and Pompeo had undermined the negotiations was inaccurate and that he had been in touch with national security officials in South Korea about the remarks. “We’ve discussed their reaction and our reaction,” Bolton said. “I’d like to speak further within the U.S. government before we respond.”

The office of South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, who did much to broker the talks between the North and the United States, said it was closely monitoring the situation. “Whatever the situation, our government will try its best to help resume North Korea-U.S. negotiations,” it said in a statement. The breakdown of the Hanoi meeting revealed a wide gap between North Korea and the United States over how to proceed with denuclearization.

North Korea insisted, as it has before, on moving in phases. In Hanoi, Kim offered to dismantle the plutonium, uranium-enrichment and other facilities at its Yongbyon site, north of Pyongyang, and demanded that Washington in return lift sanctions that have been imposed on the North since 2016.

Trump rejected the offer, demanding more substantial steps toward denuclearization. North Korea is widely believed to run at least one other uranium-enrichment plant outside Yongbyon, as well as keeping other elements of its nuclear program in secret locations around the mountainous country. U.S. officials have said that North Korea asked the United States at the Hanoi talks to lift five rounds of sanctions that have been imposed since 2016. But North Korean officials, including Choe on Friday, have insisted that they demanded that only those sanctions that affected the civilian economy be lifted.

The Americans are concerned that pulling back from major sanctions would diminish their leverage over North Korea and that the North would use any new revenues to subsidize its nuclear weapons program. U.N. sanctions have been the most punishing, banning all of the North’s key exports, including coal, and drastically cutting back its fuel imports.

Kim took a 65-hour train ride to meet Trump in Hanoi, and it was seen as a major embarrassment for him to return home without sanctions relief. By avoiding direct criticism of Trump and blaming the Hanoi talks’ breakdown mainly on his aides, Choe appeared to signal that North Korea still hoped Trump might soften Washington’s position.

But since the Hanoi talks, analysts have feared that North Korea might resume weapons tests in a bid to gain more leverage, and Choe’s warnings Friday could be a sign that North Korea is preparing to move in that direction.

“On our way back to the homeland, our chairman of the state affairs commission said, ‘For what reason do we have to make this train trip again?’” Choe said Friday, according to the AP. “I want to make it clear that the gangsterlike stand of the U.S. will eventually put the situation in danger.”

She said the United States had thrown away “a golden opportunity” in Hanoi, adding that the North was no longer interested in negotiating unless Washington changed its “political calculation.”

North Korea declared a moratorium on its nuclear and long-range missile tests after flight-testing its Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile in November 2017. A resumption of tests could scuttle the rapprochement between North Korea and the United States that began last year, after a series of belligerent threats from both sides during Trump’s first year in office.</s>U.S. Sen. Ed Markey took issue Friday with reports suggesting that North Korea may suspend diplomatic talks with the United States and resume missile testing unless the Trump administration lifts various sanctions -- a threat the Massachusetts Democrat called “nothing short of extortion.”

Markey, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s East Asia sub-panel, raised concerns about a North Korean official’s reported assertion that Pyongyang has no plans of continuing talks unless the United States makes new concessions and changes its “political calculation.”

The senator further questioned North Korea’s commitment to denuclearization and urged the Trump administration to prepare to ramp up pressure on Kim’s regime if his country moves away from diplomacy.

“Comments from North Korean officials threatening to discard diplomacy and return to nuclear testing if the United States doesn’t lift a wide range of sanctions is nothing short of extortion,” he said in a statement. “With theatrics like this, (North Korean Leader) Kim Jong Un is confirming the view of skeptics that he is not interested in conducting serious, good faith efforts to denuclearize."

Markey added that “should North Korea decide to abandon diplomacy or conduct new provocations, the United States must be ready to apply additional pressure on the Kim regime."

"We should not concede to North Korea’s threats,” he stressed.

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui told diplomats and foreign media Friday that Pyongyang was disappointed by the lack of any agreements reached at a recent summit between President Donald Trump and Kim in Vietnam, the Associated Press reported.

Choe, who said Kim was baffled by the United States’ ‘eccentric’ negotiation position at the late-February summit, added that North Korea has no plans to compromise or continue talks unless the U.S. takes steps similar to those Pyongyang has taken, like a moratorium on launches and tests, according to the AP.

She, however, offered that the personal relations between Trump and Kim remain positive, despite what she cast as the sense of hostility and mistrust created by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton’s demands at the summit.

Choe further said she expects Kim to soon “clarify his position” on the launch and test moratorium, the Associated Press reported.

Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he had “no update” on North Korea, but said he seemed to “have a very good relationship” with the country’s officials.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, meanwhile, said earlier this week that Trump left the Vietnam summit without striking a deal with Kim because he didn’t feel that what was on the table was enough.

“The president is 100 percent committed to denuclearization of the peninsula, and he’s going to make sure that whatever we do furthers that process,” she told reporters. “We’ll see what happens with North Korea, the same way we’re going to see what happens in the negotiations with China. They’re ongoing.”</s>North Korea is considering suspending talks with the United States and may rethink a ban on missile and nuclear tests unless Washington makes concessions, news reports quoted a senior diplomat as saying.

Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui blamed top U.S. officials for the breakdown of last month’s summit in Hanoi between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Russia’s Tass news agency and the Associated Press said.

“We have no intention to yield to the U.S. demands (at the Hanoi summit) in any form, nor are we willing to engage in negotiations of this kind,” TASS quoted Choe as telling reporters in the North Korean capital.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton “created the atmosphere of hostility and mistrust and, therefore, obstructed the constructive effort for negotiations between the supreme leaders of North Korea and the United States”, Tass quoted Choe as saying.

Kim is set to make an official announcement soon on his position on the denuclearisation talks with the United States and the North’s further actions, it added, citing Choe.

Choe said Washington threw away a golden opportunity at the summit and warned that Kim might rethink a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests, the Associated Press news agency said.

“I want to make it clear that the gangster-like stand of the U.S. will eventually put the situation in danger,” AP quoted her as saying. But she added: “Personal relations between the two supreme leaders are still good and the chemistry is mysteriously wonderful.”

South Korea, which has an ambitious agenda of engagement with North Korea that is dependent on Pyongyang and Washington resolving at least some of their differences, said it was too early to tell what Choe’s comments might mean.</s>SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea is considering suspending talks with the United States and may rethink a freeze on missile and nuclear tests unless Washington makes concessions, a senior diplomat said on Friday, according to news reports from the North's capital.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States wished to continue talks with North Korea and had "every expectation" that its leader, Kim Jong Un, would stick to pledges not to resume nuclear and missile testing.

Pompeo gave no sign of U.S. willingness to soften its stance in demanding that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons.

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui blamed top U.S. officials for the breakdown of last month's summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Russia's TASS news agency and the Associated Press reported.

"We have no intention to yield to the U.S. demands (at the Hanoi summit) in any form, nor are we willing to engage in negotiations of this kind," TASS quoted Choe as telling reporters in the North Korean capital.

The second Trump-Kim summit broke down over differences about U.S. demands for Pyongyang to denuclearize and North Korea's demand for dramatic relief from international sanctions imposed for its nuclear and missile tests, which it pursued for years in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Choe said Pompeo and U.S. national security adviser John Bolton "created the atmosphere of hostility and mistrust and, therefore, obstructed the constructive effort for negotiations between the supreme leaders of North Korea and the United States", TASS reported.

Kim would make an announcement soon on his position on the denuclearization talks and North Korea's next steps, TASS quoted Choe as saying. She said Washington had thrown away a golden opportunity at the summit and warned that Kim might rethink a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests, AP reported.

"I want to make it clear that the gangster-like stand of the U.S. will eventually put the situation in danger," AP quoted Choe as saying.

However, she added: "Personal relations between the two supreme leaders are still good and the chemistry is mysteriously wonderful."

Bolton told reporters outside the White House Choe's statement was "inaccurate." He said he had spoken to his South Korean counterpart but wanted to consult with other U.S. officials before responding further.

Bolton later accompanied Trump to a pre-arranged meeting with top defense officials at the Pentagon.

U.S. SEEKS MORE 'CONVERSATIONS' WITH NORTH

Pompeo told reporters it was not the first time he had been called "gangster-like" by North Korea. "And following that we continued to have very professional conversations ... I have every expectation we will be able to continue to do that," he said.

Pompeo said that in her remarks, Choe had left open the possibility that negotiations would continue.

"It's the administration's desire that we continue to have conversations around this," Pompeo said. "As the president said when he was in Hanoi, the offer that they made simply didn't rise to the level that was acceptable, given what they were asking for in exchange."

Kim had committed multiple times to Trump in Hanoi that he would not to resume nuclear or missile testing, Pompeo said. "That's Chairman Kim's word. We have every expectation he will live up to that commitment."

Pompeo told Fox News he did not want to forecast "what we will do or what we might do" if Kim were to resume testing, but added: "That would be most unfortunate. I think Chairman Kim understands that."

Trump has pointed to North Korea's freeze in nuclear and missile testing since 2017 as a positive outcome from nearly a year of diplomatic engagement with North Korea. He and Kim had previous exchanged fiery rhetoric that had raised fears of war.

Washington has said it is closely watching activity at a North Korean rocket site that U.S. think tanks have said could be preparations for a new launch.

Trump has made much of his personal chemistry with Kim and has said he would be "very disappointed" in Kim if North Korea were to resume testing.

South Korea, which has an ambitious agenda of engagement with North Korea that is dependent on Pyongyang and Washington resolving at least some of their differences, said it was too early to tell what Choe's comments might mean.

"We cannot judge the current situation based solely on Vice Minister Choe Son Hui's statements. We are watching the situation closely. In any situation, our government will endeavor for the restart of North Korea-U.S. negotiations," South Korea's presidential Blue House said in a statement. Choe's comments echoed the North's usual rhetoric at tense points in its dealings with Washington. North Korea expert Joshua Pollack said North Korea may be delivering an ultimatum. "They're putting down a marker, saying which way things are headed if nothing changes," Pollack, of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, said. Joel Wit of the 38 North think tank said North Korea was likely toughening its negotiating position after the collapse of the Hanoi summit. "It is likely to gauge the U.S. reaction in the days ahead before making a decision to launch a rocket," he said. Choe had said after the Hanoi talks that Kim might lose his commitment to pursue a deal with the United States after seeing it reject a request to lift some sanctions in return for the North destroying its main known nuclear complex. In Beijing, Premier Li Keqiang urged patience and further dialogue between North Korea and the United States. Earlier on Friday, a spokeswoman for South Korea's Ministry of Unification told a press briefing that the weekly inter-Korean meeting scheduled at a liaison office in Kaesong, North Korea, had been canceled after the North Koreans said they would not be sending senior officials. The spokeswoman said the ministry had not confirmed why the North Korean officials decided not to attend.</s>SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea is considering suspending nuclear talks with the United States and its leader may rethink a ban on missile tests, news reports from the North’s capital on Friday quoted a senior official as saying.

After the failure of last month’s summit of U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the North’s top nuclear envoy said its leadership was considering dropping denuclearisation talks, Russia’s TASS news agency said.

“We have no intention to yield to the U.S. demands (at the Hanoi summit) in any form, nor are we willing to engage in negotiations of this kind,” the agency quoted North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui as saying.

Kim is set to make an official announcement soon on his position regarding talks with the United States and the North’s further actions, it added, citing Choe, who was addressing a news conference in the North Korean capital.

Choe also said Washington threw away a golden opportunity at the summit and warned that Kim might rethink a moratorium on missile launches, the Associated Press news agency added.

The comments run counter to optimism displayed by a U.S. negotiator this week, despite the collapse of last month’s talks in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

That meeting crumbled over differences about U.S. demands for Pyongyang to denuclearise and North Korea’s demand for dramatic relief from international sanctions imposed for its nuclear and missile tests.

Choe had said after the Hanoi talks that Kim might lose his commitment to pursue a deal with the United States after seeing it reject a request to lift some sanctions in return for the North destroying its main known nuclear complex.

In Washington this week, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, said the United States expected to be able to continue its close engagement, though he offered no specifics on when new talks might be held.

“Diplomacy is still very much alive,” Biegun said on Monday, but stopped short of saying if there had been any talks since the summit.

In Beijing, Premier Li Keqiang urged patience and more dialogue between North Korea and the United States.

“The peninsula problem can be said to be complicated and long-standing, and it cannot be solved overnight,” Li told an annual news conference on Friday, although his remarks were not made in response to the TASS report.</s>SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea is considering suspending talks with the United States and may rethink a ban on missile and nuclear tests unless Washington makes concessions, news reports from the North’s capital on Friday quoted a senior diplomat as saying.

Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui blamed top U.S. officials for the breakdown of last month’s summit in Hanoi between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Russia’s Tass news agency and the Associated Press said.

“We have no intention to yield to the U.S. demands (at the Hanoi summit) in any form, nor are we willing to engage in negotiations of this kind,” TASS quoted Choe as telling reporters in the North Korean capital.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton “created the atmosphere of hostility and mistrust and, therefore, obstructed the constructive effort for negotiations between the supreme leaders of North Korea and the United States”, Tass quoted Choe as saying.

Kim is set to make an official announcement soon on his position on the denuclearisation talks with the United States and the North’s further actions, it added, citing Choe.

Choe said Washington threw away a golden opportunity at the summit and warned that Kim might rethink a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests, the Associated Press news agency said.

“I want to make it clear that the gangster-like stand of the U.S. will eventually put the situation in danger,” AP quoted her as saying. But she added: “Personal relations between the two supreme leaders are still good and the chemistry is mysteriously wonderful.”

South Korea, which has an ambitious agenda of engagement with North Korea that is dependent on Pyongyang and Washington resolving at least some of their differences, said it was too early to tell what Choe’s comments might mean.

“We cannot judge the current situation based solely on Vice Minister Choe Son Hui’s statements. We are watching the situation closely. In any situation, our government will endeavor for the restart of North Korea-U.S. negotiations,” South Korea’s presidential Blue House said in a statement.

Choe’s comments echoed the North’s usual rhetoric at tense points in its dealings with Washington. North Korea expert Joshua Pollack said North Korea may be delivering an ultimatum.

“They’re putting down a marker, saying which way things are headed if nothing changes,” Pollack, of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, said.

The second Trump-Kim summit broke down over differences about U.S. demands for Pyongyang to denuclearise and North Korea’s demand for dramatic relief from international sanctions imposed for its nuclear and missile tests, which it pursued for years in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Choe had said after the Hanoi talks that Kim might lose his commitment to pursue a deal with the United States after seeing it reject a request to lift some sanctions in return for the North destroying its main known nuclear complex.

In Washington this week, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, said the United States expected to be able to continue its close engagement, though he offered no specifics on when new talks might be held.

“Diplomacy is still very much alive,” Biegun said on Monday, but stopped short of saying if there had been any talks since the summit.

Bolton, who has argued for a tough approach to North Korea, said last week that Trump was open to more talks but also warned of tougher sanctions if the North did not denuclearise.

In Beijing, Premier Li Keqiang urged patience and further dialogue between North Korea and the United States.

“The peninsula problem can be said to be complicated and long-standing, and it cannot be solved overnight,” Li told an annual news conference on Friday, although his remarks were not made in response to the TASS report.

Earlier on Friday, a spokeswoman for South Korea’s Ministry of Unification told a press briefing that the weekly inter-Korean meeting scheduled at a liaison office in Kaesong, North Korea, had been canceled after the North Koreans said they would not be sending senior officials.

The spokeswoman said the ministry had not confirmed why the North Korean officials decided not to attend.

The South Korean won fell to its weakest intraday level in four months soon after the report, whereas the stock market’s KOSPI was muted in its reaction.

South Korean and Japanese defense-related shares surged following the reports.
North Korea has reportedly threatened to suspend negotiations with the United States regarding nuclear weaponry, as well as resume related missile testing.