Seoul: US and North Korean officials were slated to meet on Friday in the Swedish capital of Stockholm on the eve of their formal working-level nuclear talks after Pyongyang ratcheted up tensions with a test-firing of a new submarine-launched ballistic missile.
The two sides were expected to have "preliminary contact" in the morning before their first official negotiations since the no-deal summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi in February. The exact time and venue for Friday's meeting were yet to be officially announced.
The deputy chiefs of countries' delegations Mark Lambert of the US and Kwon Jong-gun of North Korea are expected to attend the preliminary session. Top US nuclear negotiators Stephen Biegun and his counterpart Kim Myong Gil could also make an appearance to exchange greetings, sources said.
The meeting comes after North Korea fired a fresh round of unidentified projectiles off its eastern coast on Wednesday. This came even after the reclusive state said it was ready to hold working-level talks with the US.
The two sides are slated to hold the working-level talks on Saturday in a bid to accelerate Pyongyang's disarmament process.
"I expect that the working-level negotiations would accelerate the positive development of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea-US relations," North Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui was quoted.
In that meeting, no agreement was reached due to differences over Pyongyang's demands for sanction waivers in exchange for steps done to dismantle its nuclear program.
In June, Trump and Kim had held an impromptu meeting at the Demilitarized Zone where the two leaders agreed to resume working-level talks to put the stalled denuclearisation negotiations back on track.
North Korea has repeatedly insisted that the removal of penalties will help spur economic growth while the US has reaffirmed that sanctions will not be removed until the communist country completely stops its nuclear weapons program.
