PYONGYANG (dpa-AFX) - Pyongyang has reacted positively to Washington's repeated calls to resume denuclearization talks by saying they are willing for a late September schedule.
In a statement published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, North Korea's first vice foreign minister Choe Son-hui said that the U.S. Government should come up with a new proposal acceptable to the Kim Jong Un regime.
'We have willingness to sit with the U.S. side for comprehensive discussions of the issues we have so far taken up at the time and place to be agreed late in September,' the statement says.
President Donald Trump's response to the offer for talks was apparently vague.
'We'll see what happens, but I always say having meetings is a good thing, not a bad thing,' he told reporters at the White House.
Hours after Choe spoke, North Korea fired two short-range projectiles from a western region toward the East Sea on Tuesday.
Despite both sides' willingness to continue talks, tough U.S. sanctions remain a tumbling bloc in paving the way for any breakthruogh.
In a statement last month calling on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to return for talks, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made it clear that US will not withdraw sanctions until Pyongyang comes out with concrete actions to eschew nuclearization.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho replied by calling his US counterpart a 'poisonous plant of American diplomacy.' Ri accused Pompeo of casting 'dark shadows' over the U.S.-North Korea talks by giving priority to his political ambitions over the country's foreign policy.
Easing of sanctions is Pyongyang's main demand to yield to Washington's conditions.
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