On Saturday, a new round of US-North Korean working-level negotiations collapsed within hours, with chief North Korean negotiator Kim Myong-gil stating that “the negotiation did not live up to our expectations and broke down.” According to Kim, the US negotiators arrived “empty-handed” and without any change to the country’s “old stance and attitude.”
However, the US State Department disputed the North Korean account of the talks, stating that “the US brought creative ideas and had good discussions” with the North Korean officials. The negotiations were the first substantial talks between the two countries since the failure of the US-North Korea summit in Hanoi in February. In the past few months, North Korea repeatedly slammed US sanctions and carried out a variety of missile tests.
Read more: US Nuclear Talks With North Korea Break Down in Hours
