North Korean negotiator Kim Miyong Gil reads statement outside the North Korean Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019. North Korea's chief negotiator said Saturday that discussions with the U.S. on Pyongyang's nuclear program have broken down, but Washington said the two sides had 'good discussions' that it intends to build on in two weeks.
Kyodo News/AP
By HYUNG-JIN KIM / AP October 6, 2019
(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea said Sunday that it won’t meet again with the United States unless it abandons its “hostile policy” against the North, as the two countries offered different takes on their weekend nuclear negotiations in Sweden.
After their first talks in more than seven months in Stockholm on Saturday, the chief North Korean nuclear negotiator said the talks broke down “entirely because the U.S. has not discarded its old stance and attitude” and came to the negotiating table with an “empty hand.” But the U.S. said the two sides had “good discussions” that it intends to build on in two weeks.
On Sunday night, the North’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement accusing the U.S. of trying to mislead public opinion and “spreading a completely ungrounded story that both sides are open to meet” again.
The statement said the Stockholm talks “made us think they have no political will to improve (North Korea)-U.S. relations and may be abusing the bilateral relations for their own partisan interests” at home.
https://time.com/5693782/north-korea...-states-talks/