Trump, South Korea’s president hold talks on diplomacy with North Korea

United States President, Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a half-hour phone discussion on ways to maintain diplomacy with North Korea, Seoul said on Saturday, as Pyongyang warns of waning patience with stalled nuclear talks.

The two leaders agreed that the situation has become “severe” and that “dialogue momentum should be maintained to achieve prompt results from denuclearization negotiations,” South Korea’s presidential Blue House said in a statement.

They also agreed to consult regularly as needed, the statement said.

Read also: 24 victims feared killed, dozens injured in Burundi landslides

Tensions are rising ahead of a year-end deadline set by North Korea, which has called on the United States to change its policy of demanding unilateral denuclearization or leader Kim Jong Un may choose an unspecified “new path,” Reuters reports.

In a series of statements in recent weeks, senior North Korean officials have warned the United States not to ignore the deadline, and called Washington’s offer of more talks a stalling tactic ahead of next year’s U.S. election.

Longtime allies, the US and South Korea are also in negotiations over how much each side will pay to fund the roughly 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.

 

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now