A senior North
Korean diplomat who handles relations with the United States said on Saturday
Pyongyang would have dialogue with the U.S. administration if conditions
were
right, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
Choe Son Hui,
North Korea's foreign ministry director general for U.S. affairs, made the
comment to reporters in Beijing as she was traveling home from Norway, Yonhap
said.
"We'll
have dialogue if the conditions are there," she told reporters when asked
if the North was preparing to hold talks with the Trump administration,
according to Yonhap.
When asked if
North Korea was also preparing to talk with the new government in South Korea,
of liberal President Moon Jae-in, Choe said: "We'll see."
The comments
by Choe, who is a veteran member of the North's team of nuclear negotiators,
came amid stepped up international efforts to press North Korea and ease
tension over its pursuit of nuclear arms.
U.S. President
Donald Trump warned in an interview with Reuters in late April that a
"major, major conflict" with the North was possible, but he would
prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute over its nuclear and missile
programs.
Trump later
said he would be "honored" to meet the North's leader, Kim Jong Un,
under the right conditions.
Choe was in
Norway for so-called Track Two talks with former U.S. government officials,
according to Japanese media, the latest in a series of such meetings.
A source with
knowledge of the latest meeting said at least one former U.S. government
official took part but the U.S. administration was not involved.
South Korea's
Moon, elected this week on a platform of a moderate approach to North Korea,
has said he would be willing to go to Pyongyang under the right circumstances
and said dialogue must be used in parallel with sanctions to resolve the
problem over North Korea's weapons.
North Korea
has conducted five nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. and U.S. sanctions and is
also developing long-range missiles to deliver atomic weapons.
It says it
needs such weapons to defend itself against U.S. aggression.
REUTERS
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