North Korea to Washington: Timetable on Talks Is Up to Us, Not You

SEOUL — North Korea said on Tuesday that the United States would face a great “disappointment” if it expected a quick resumption of talks about its nuclear weapons program, offering a blow to a Biden administration envoy who had proposed a new round of negotiations.

The American special envoy to North Korea, Sung Kim, called this week for a meeting “anywhere, anytime without preconditions” during his first trip to the Korean Peninsula since being appointed by President Biden.

Kim, who is visiting Seoul, is a familiar face to many North Korean officials because he previously served as special envoy from 2014 to 2016.

On Tuesday, North Korea warned the United States not to get ahead of itself on the issue of dialogue.

On a trip to Seoul to discuss North Korea with South Korean and Japanese officials, Sung Kim repeated that message.

For now, North Korea is expected to focus on reopening the border with China, shut down in the pandemic, in order to receive more trade and cooperation from its most important political and economic ally, said Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute in South Korea.

North Korea has since insisted it was willing to establish a “new relationship” with the United States, but only if Washington ended its “hostile policy,” a stock phrase the North uses to refer to sanctions and the threat of the United States military presence in the region