President Donald Trump\u2019s top envoy to North Korea countered Kim Jong Un\u2019s threat of a Christmas provocation with a call for more nuclear talks to usher in a \u201cseason of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are fully aware of the strong potential for North Korea to conduct a major provocation in the days ahead,\u201d Biegun told reporters. \u201cSuch action will be most unhelpful in achieving a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biegun\u2019s comments came on the heels of North Korea\u2019s claims of a second \u201ccrucial test\u201d Saturday that it said had boosted its nuclear-deterrent capabilities. Such tests have put further pressure on the U.S. to try to break the deadlock in negotiations between the two countries after working-level talks collapsed in October in Stockholm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun on Monday urged Kim to return to negotiations, noting that the coming holiday holiday was \u201cone of the most sacred days on our calendar.\u201d Biegun made the remarks during his first visit to Seoul since North Korea threatened to give Trump a \u201cChristmas gift\u201d to show its frustration with the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kim is seeking greater U.S. concessions in return for his decision to suspend nuclear weapons tests and his agreement with Trump in Singapore to \u201cwork toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.\u201d Pyongyang threatened to take a \u201cnew path\u201d if there was no progress in talks by the end of the year, following up earlier this month with its \u201cChristmas gift\u201d threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. envoy said his team of negotiators have \u201coffered a number of creative ways\u201d to move forward and reach an agreement. Recent rhetoric from North Korean officials slamming American representatives reflect \u201cneither the spirit nor the content\u201d of numerous working-level talks between the two sides, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biegun also met Monday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chol. Moon asked Biegun to continue his efforts for the development of the peace process on the Korean Peninsula, presidential spokesman Han Jung-woo said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Donald Trump\u2019s top envoy to North Korea countered Kim Jong Un\u2019s threat of a Christmas provocation with a call for more nuclear talks to usher in a \u201cseason of peace.\u201d \u201cWe are fully aware of the strong potential for North Korea to conduct a major provocation in the days ahead,\u201d Biegun told reporters. \u201cSuch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76527,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76525\/revisions\/76527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}