DPRK repeats its unwillingness for more talks with US

PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is unwilling to talk face to face with the United States and urged the Republic of Korea (ROK) to stay away from meddling in Pyongyang's affairs, a senior DPRK diplomat reaffirmed on Tuesday.

"Explicitly speaking once again, we have no intention to sit face to face with the US," Kwon Jong-gun, director general of the Department of US Affairs of the Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Kwon was reaffirming a statement issued earlier by Choe Son-hui, first vice-minister of foreign affairs of DPRK, who said last weekend that the DPRK had no interest in holding another DPRK-US summit before the US election in November, which was proposed by the ROK President Moon Jae-in last Wednesday.

"Time will show whether its efforts will succeed or it will only suffer a loss and ridicule," Kwon said, referring to Seoul's proposal.

Kwon also asked the ROK leader not to become a "meddlesome man who had again indicated his intention to arbitrate between the DPRK and the US regardless of time."

The ROK government seems "to have a bad ear or are guided by the habit of always talking in their own favor" as there was no change in their efforts to mediate a DPRK-US summit, Kwon added.

The statement was issued when US special envoy for the DPRK Stephen Biegun is set to arrive in Seoul on Tuesday for talks with his ROK counterpart amid stalled nuclear talks on the Korean peninsula. Biegun said recently that the proposed DPRK-US summit was unlikely to happen before the US presidential election in November, citing COVID-19 as a reason.

DPRK's top leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump met three times in 2018 and 2019. But talks on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula between the DPRK and the United States have been stalled since the Hanoi Summit between their leaders in February 2019 failed to reach an agreement.