WASHINGTON, 08 July 2021 (TON): A State Department spokesman said that the United States’ top envoy for North Korea spoke with his Chinese counterpart, after Pyongyang’s repeated rejection of the Biden administration’s attempts to establish dialogue.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said “earlier its special representative on the Korean Peninsula, Liu Xiaoming, spoke by phone with U.S. special representative Sung Kim and that the two “agreed to keep contact.”

Kim visited South Korea last month to try to break an impasse in denuclearization talks with the North, which has not responded to Washington’s attempts at contact since President Joe Biden took office in January.

Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, held three summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but failed to persuade him to give up his nuclear weapons.

State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed the call but declined to detail what was discussed.

Washington would work with allies South Korea and Japan on North Korea, and China has a role to play as well and obviously has influence with the regime,” Price said.