News / Koreas

US, North Korea negotiators arive in Sweden for nuclear talks

Saturday, 05 October 2019 11:09 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 05 October 2019 11:26 AM ]

Police are seen outside Villa Elfik Strand at Lidingo, outside Stockholm, Sweden, October 5, 2019, where US top negotiator on North Korea, Stephen Biegun, is expected to meet North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Myong-gil. (Photo by Reuters)

US and North Korean officials have gathered in Sweden to resume nuclear negotiations as part of attempts to end months of deadlock.

The high-ranking delegations led by US Special Representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, and North Korea's Kim Myong-gil arrived for a joint meeting on the island of Lidingo on the outskirts of the capital, Stockholm, on Saturday.

Police had earlier closed off the approaches to the isolated conference center as two motorcades entered the venue, with police confirming one carried the North Korean officials and the other included cars used by Biegun.

The representatives of North Korea, which is under sanctions due to its nuclear program, arrived in Sweden on Thursday after Pyongyang unexpectedly announced this week that talks would kick off on October 5.

Members of the North Korean delegation arrive at Arlanda airport, north of Stockholm, on October 3, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

The meeting will be the first formal working-level talks since US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the Korean Peninsula in June and agreed to restart negotiations that stalled after a failed summit in Vietnam in February.

The announcement of the resumption of talks came a day after Pyongyang test-fired a new ballistic missile designed for submarine launch.

The submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), which flew 450 kilometers and reached an altitude of 910 kilometers, landed in waters near Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

PressTV-N Korea confirms testing ballistic missile from sea

Pyongyang has confirmed reports that it successfully test-fired a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from sea.

Pyongyang had been developing SLBM technology before it suspended long-range missile and nuclear tests last year.

This is the ninth time Pyongyang has tested ballistic missiles or other projectiles since late July.

North Korea, currently under multiple rounds of harsh sanctions by the UN and the United States over its nuclear and missile programs, put a unilateral halt to its missile and nuclear tests shortly before a diplomatic thaw began between Pyongyang and Seoul in early 2018.

But diplomacy hit a dead end as the US refused to reciprocate unilateral North Korean steps. And later, Kim indicated that his country would resume its nuclear and missile tests.

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