Senior Russian diplomat calls for direct Russo-American talks on North Korea

A senior Russian diplomat says Russia and the United States should hold direct talks on North Korea.

"I'm sure that the dynamic development of the current situation on the Korean Peninsula calls for active Russo-American dialogue on this issue," TASS news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov as saying on Saturday.

He added that Moscow had sent an invitation for talks to Joseph Yun, the US Special Representative for North Korea Policy, but noted that no date had been set yet.

The Russian diplomat made the comments a day after US President Donald Trump announced what he called America’s “largest-ever” tranche of sanctions against North Korea, in an attempt to increase pressure on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear and missile programs.

PressTV-Trump announces 'largest ever' N Korea sanctions

Trump has announced what he called America’s “largest ever” tranche of sanctions against North Korea, in an attempt to increase pressure on the nuclear-armed country.

Trump made the announcement during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, days after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the pressure from the US-led economic sanctions was "having its bite on North Korea.”

“Today I am announcing that we are launching the largest-ever set of new sanctions on the North Korean regime,” Trump said.

Tensions heightened between the two countries after Trump warned to “totally destroy” North Korea during his first address to the United Nations General Assembly in September.

North Korea is already under numerous harsh US-led sanctions, but has resisted the pressure campaign meant to halt its weapons program.

Pyongyang has said it would keep up the development of its weapons programs as a deterrent against any act of aggression by the US that has a substantial military presence in the region.

Read more:

• Sanctions will fail to make N Korea accede to US bullying: Ex-sentaor
• US plans bans on North Korea, South invites sanctioned official
• Trump warns of phase 2 if N Korea sanctions fail

Elsewhere in his comments, Morgulov repeated calls for dialogue between the US and North Korea.

The US president said in January he was open to talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who he has referred to as “little rocket man,” in a drastic shift from his latest exchange with him, comparing the size of a “nuclear button” in his possession.

PressTV-Trump says now open to North Korea talks

The US president now says he is open to talks with North Korea, in a drastic policy shift.

Trump, who harshly censured his top diplomat last year for expressing willingness to hold negotiations with the nuclear-armed North, told reporters at Camp David on Saturday that some dialogue or direct conversation with Kim would be a possibility.

Back in August, Tillerson said that Washington remained ready for talks after North Korea postponed a threat to fire missiles into the waters near Guam, which is home to a US military base in the Pacific Ocean.

PressTV-'US open to dialogue if N Korea ready to disarm'

Rex Tillerson says Washington remains ready for talks, after North Korea postponed a threat to fire missiles into the waters near Guam.

“I have no response to his decisions at all at this time,” Tillerson said at the State Department. “We continue to be interested in finding ways to get to dialogue, but that's up to” the North Korean leader.

A senior North Korean diplomat in charge of handling US relations said in May that Pyongyang would hold talks with Washington under the right conditions.

PressTV-‘N Korea open to US dialog under right conditions’

A senior North Korean diplomat says Pyongyang will hold talks with the US under right conditions.

Choe Son-hui, deputy director general of the Department of US Affairs at the North Korean Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in the Chinese capital Beijing on her way back home from Norway, according to the South’s Yonhap news agency.

“We’ll have dialogue if the conditions are there,” she said when asked if Pyongyang was ready to hold talks with the US administration.

Read more:

• China's UN envoy: Why not to have dialogue with North Korea?
• Trump: North Korea needs ‘determined response’

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