U.S. seeks "concrete deliverables" through negotiations with DPRK ahead of summit: envoy

Source: Xinhua| 2019-02-01 12:46:43|Editor: Yang Yi

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The United States is seeking to achieve "a set of concrete deliverables" through working-level negotiations with Pyongyang ahead of the scheduled leaders' summit, said U.S. envoy to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday.

"We expect to hold working-level negotiations with our North Korean (DPRK) counterparts in advance of the summit, with the intention of achieving a set of concrete deliverables ... a roadmap of negotiations and declarations going forward, and a shared understanding of the desired outcomes of our joint efforts," Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for the DPRK, said at an event at the Stanford University in California.

Also on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that the date and location of his second meeting with top leader of the DPRK Kim Jong Un have been decided and will be announced next week.

The meeting between Trump and Kim, which is expected to take place at the end of February, will be the two leaders' second face-to-face encounter following their meeting in Singapore last June. Both sides have said they look forward to such a meeting.

"We have communicated to our North Korean counterparts that we are prepared to pursue, simultaneously and in parallel, all of the commitments our two leaders made in their joint statement at Singapore last summer," said Biegun.

The U.S. envoy also said Washington demands "a complete understanding of the full extent of the North Korean weapons of mass destruction missile programs" and disarmament experts' inspection into the nuclear facilities in the DPRK before "the process of denuclearization can be final."

Biegun will travel to Seoul on Sunday for a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Lee Do-hoon, said the U.S. State Department on Thursday.

He will also have follow-up meetings with his DPRK counterpart to "discuss next steps to advance" the goal of denuclearization, the department said in a statement.

The U.S.-DPRK relations improved last year. However, differences between the two sides remain over key issues including the scale of denuclearization, U.S. sanctions and whether to issue a war-ending declaration.