North Korea is ready to open direct talks with US, says Russia's Sergei Lavrov

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

North Korea is ready to open direct talks with US, says Russia's Sergei Lavrov

• Pyongyang ‘wants above all to talk to the US about guarantees for its security’
• Lavrov says he informed Rex Tillerson in Vienna on Thursday

Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday 7 December 2017 22.20 GMT

North Korea is open to direct talks with the US over their nuclear standoff, according to the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who said he passed that message to his counterpart, Rex Tillerson, when the two diplomats met in Vienna on Thursday.

There was no immediate response from Tillerson but the official position of the state department is that North Korea would have to show itself to be serious about giving up its nuclear arsenal as part of a comprehensive agreement before a dialogue could begin.

Lavrov conveyed the apparent offer on the day a top UN official, Jeffrey Feltman, met the North Korean foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, in Pyongyang, during the first high-level UN visit to the country for six years. Feltman is an American and a former US diplomat, but the state department stressed he was not in North Korea with any message from Washington.

“We know that North Korea wants above all to talk to the United States about guarantees for its security. We are ready to support that, we are ready to take part in facilitating such negotiations,” Lavrov said at an international conference in Vienna, according to the Interfax news agency. “Our American colleagues, [including] Rex Tillerson, have heard this.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/07/north-korea-ready-direct-talks-us-sergei-lavrov

[defacto7]

1. This is good... but...

If true... then we've been had all along by Russia, Trump and possibly Kim. I wouldn't trust any of them for planning more than a photo op.

[Iliyah]

2. Sounds like Putin in control