US envoy for North Korea says ‘diplomacy still very much alive’ with Pyongyang despite summit collapse
- But Stephen Biegun said North Korea must show it is fully committed to elimination of its nuclear weapons
- Andrea Thompson, the US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said she believed Trump and Kim would meet again in a third summit
The US envoy for North Korea said on Monday that “diplomacy is still very much alive” with the hermit kingdom despite the collapse of last month’s summit between the two countries’ leaders, while another US official said she believed they would meet again in a third summit.
But US Special Representative to North Korea Stephen Biegun said at a Washington nuclear conference that gaps remain between the sides and North Korea must show it is fully committed to elimination of its nuclear weapons.
“We are not going to do denuclearisation incrementally, and that is the position [on] which the US government has a complete unity,” Biegun told the Carnegie Nuclear Conference, repeating the Trump administration’s message that it would accept nothing less than “the final, fully-verified denuclearisation of North Korea”.
“The foundation of US policy is denuclearisation,” he said. “And until we can get to some point, or we have the same traction on that issue, then we have another issue which makes difficult for us to move forward.”
“We have been closely engaged with North Koreans, especially over the past couple of months. It’s certainly our expectations we will be able to continue that close engagement in order to advance the shared goals of the two leaders as expressed in Singapore summit.”
