Asia Pacific
11:10, 07-Mar-2019
U.S., ROK, Japan in talks after Trump-Kim summit breakdown
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The top nuclear envoys of the Republic of Korea (ROK), the United States and Japan met in Washington, DC, on Wednesday to discuss the next steps after the second summit between Washington and Pyongyang, Yonhap News Agency reported.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) leader Kim Jong Un met in Hanoi, on February 27 and 28, but the two sides failed to reach an agreement on DPRK's denuclearization.
Stephen Biegun, U.S. special representative for DPRK, held bilateral and trilateral talks with his ROK and Japanese counterparts, Lee Do-hoon and Kenji Kanasugi, according to a statement released by the U.S. State Department on Wednesday. The three parties discussed "continued, coordinated efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK," the statement said.
Two U.S. think tanks said on Tuesday that work was underway to restore part of DPRK's Sohae satellite launching station even as Trump met with Kim in Hanoi last week.
The Sohae Satellite Launching Station's launch pad features what researchers of Beyond Parallel, a CSIS project, describe as the partially rebuilt rail-mounted rocket transfer structure. /Reuters Photo
The Sohae Satellite Launching Station's launch pad features what researchers of Beyond Parallel, a CSIS project, describe as the partially rebuilt rail-mounted rocket transfer structure. /Reuters Photo
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office he would be "very disappointed" in Kim if reports about rebuilding at a rocket launch site were true.
But he said the reports were in a very early stage and the U.S. would look into it.
U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton warned the DPRK on Tuesday that new sanctions could be introduced if Pyongyang did not scrap its nuclear weapons program.
The DPRK began to dismantle a missile engine test stand at the Sohae rocket launch site last year after pledging to do so at the Singapore summit in June.
A second summit between Trump and Kim broke down last week in Hanoi over differences on how far Pyongyang was willing to limit its nuclear program and the degree of U.S. willingness to ease sanctions.
(With input from Reuters)