The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is unwilling to talk face to face with the United States and urged Republic of Korea (ROK) to stay away from meddling in Pyongyang's affairs, a senior DPRK diplomat reaffirmed on Tuesday (July 7).
US and DPRK national flags during the meeting of US President Donald Trump and DPRK Chairman Kim Jong Un at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore, on June 12, 2018. (Photo: Reuters)
"Explicitly speaking once again, we have no intention to sit face to face with the US," Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of US Affairs of the Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Kwon was reaffirming a statement issued earlier by Choe Son Hui, first vice-minister of foreign affairs of DPRK, who said last weekend that the DPRK had no interest in holding another DPRK-US summit before the US election in November, which was proposed by ROK President Moon Jae-in last Wednesday.The statement was issued when US special envoy for the DPRK Stephen Biegun is set to arrive in Seoul on Tuesday for talks with his ROK counterpart amid stalled nuclear talks on the Korean peninsula. Biegun said recently that the proposed DPRK-US summit was unlikely to happen before the US presidential election in November, citing COVID-19 as a reason.
DPRK's Chairman Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump met three times in 2018 and 2019. But talks on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula between the DPRK and the United States have been stalled since the Hanoi Summit between their leaders in February 2019 failed to reach an agreement.
