WASHINGTON, 21 June 2021, (TON): Sung Kim, the United States’s special envoy on North Korea, has offered to meet officials from Pyongyang “anywhere, anytime” amid a continued impasse in negotiations between the two.

In the meantime, the US will continue to enforce United Nations Security Council sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme and urge other countries to do the same, Kim said.

He said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea “we continue to hope that the DPRK will respond positively to our outreach, and our offer to meet anywhere anytime without preconditions.”

Kim, whose appointment was announced at last month’s summit between US president Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in, arrived in Seoul for a five-day visit.

The Biden administration has previously promised a “practical, calibrated approach” to North Korea, including diplomatic efforts, to persuade the country to give up its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

In his first response to the Biden policy review, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said “last week that Pyongyang must prepare for both dialogue and confrontation.”