Apparently, the recent nuclear talks between North Korea and the United States have failed. According to media reports, North Korea has broken off the negotiations. "We are disappointed in the US Negotiations did not meet our expectations and were therefore discontinued," North Korean negotiator Kim Myong Gil said to reporters following the Stockholm meeting, according to the Swedish newspaper "Dagens Nyheter". The US had brought nothing to the negotiating table. Now it is up to Washington to resume the dialogue.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been confident before the talks started. After a long break, this first exchange should form the basis for negotiations "in the coming weeks and months" in order to achieve sustainable progress, Pompeo said during a visit to Greece. The US brought a number of ideas to the talks in Stockholm, Sweden. It is therefore to be hoped that the North Koreans arrived with good will and "the will to make progress," Pompeo said.
It was the first time that delegations from both countries met for talks since US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had agreed to restart negotiations in June. A summit of the two in February had ended inconclusively, more than half a year, the US negotiators had to wait for an appointment. According to Pompeo, the US government had traveled to Stockholm with a broad-based team.
The US wants to achieve North Korea's renunciation of nuclear weapons. The leadership in Pyongyang insists on the lifting of economic sanctions. On Wednesday, North Korea tested an allegedly novel, submarine-based ballistic missile. The US State Department had called on Pyongyang to stop the provocation and engage constructively in the disarmament talks.