The U.S. was reportedly planning in-person meetings with top North Korean officials that would be the first of its kind in more than five years, the Washington Post reported Sunday. The news came despite North Korea’s recent missiles tests as well as President Donald Trump’s tough talk on the hermetic nation’s aggressive posturing.
Stating the possible talks may be an indication that North Korea believed it could work with the new administration, the report indicated that if agreed upon, the meetings would take place in New York in the next “few weeks.”
Diplomatic exchanges between the two rival nations have taken place abroad in places like Mongolia, Germany and Switzerland, but not on U.S. soil since July 2011, prior to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un assuming power after his father Kim Jong Il’s death. Visas for the North Korean officials have not been approved by the State Department according to the report.
Responding to the report, a White House official told Reuters that the U.S. had no plans to meet with North Korean officials at all. A State Department spokesperson said “Track 2” meetings, which involve former diplomatic officials from both sides, often take place around the world.
The Kim government had recently put the rest of the world on edge after it reported conducting a successful ballistic missile test earlier this month, an act that the United Nations said was in violation of its Security Council resolutions against North Korea.
“The North Koreans have expressed an interest in engagement, but nothing’s been approved yet,” one unnamed source told The Post.
Sources also said North Korean officials were receptive to the idea of a meeting because they have an “intense interest” in the Trump administration.
“If this happens, it would be an interesting signal to the new administration,” another source said.
Trump responded to the reported missile test while reading a statement to reporters beside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida earlier this month. He vowed to stand by ally Japan, which has condemned North Korea, but did not mention North Korea by name.
A North Korean missile test “won’t happen!” Trump vowed before he was inaugurated.
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