US urges NKorea to stop missile tests and return to talks

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SEOUL – A elder U.S. diplomat connected Sunday urged North Korea to refrain from further rocket tests and resume atomic diplomacy, days aft the North fired disconnected its archetypal underwater-launched ballistic rocket successful 2 years.

Sung Kim, the U.S. envoy connected North Korea, spoke aft gathering with South Korean officials to sermon North Korea’s caller rocket tests portion atomic negotiations betwixt Washington and Pyongyang stay stalled.

“We telephone connected the DPRK to cease these provocations and different destabilizing activities, and instead, prosecute successful dialogue,” Kim told reporters, referring to North Korea by its authoritative name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“We stay acceptable to conscionable with the DPRK without preconditions and we person made wide that the United States harbors nary hostile intent towards the DPRK,” helium said.

Last Tuesday, North Korea fired a recently developed ballistic rocket from a submarine successful its 5th circular of weapons tests successful caller weeks.

South Korean officials said the submarine-fired rocket appeared to beryllium successful an aboriginal signifier of development. That marked the North’s archetypal underwater-launched trial since October 2019, and the astir high-profile 1 since President Joe Biden took bureau successful January.

Missiles fired from submarines are harder to observe successful beforehand and would supply North Korea with a secondary, retaliatory onslaught capability.

Tuesday’s motorboat violates aggregate United Nations Security Council resolutions that prohibition immoderate enactment by North Korea successful the country of ballistic missiles. Kim said the trial poses a menace to the planetary assemblage and is “concerning and counterproductive” to efforts to beforehand bid connected the Korean Peninsula.

Kim’s South Korean counterpart, Noh Kyu-duk, said the 2 had an “in-depth” treatment connected Seoul’s propulsion for a symbolic declaration to extremity the 1950-53 Korean War arsenic a mode to bring peace. Noh said helium and Kim besides reaffirmed that North Korea’s issues of interest tin beryllium discussed erstwhile talks are restarted.

The U.S.-led talks connected ending North Korea's atomic programme person been mostly stalled since aboriginal 2019, erstwhile a acme betwixt then-President Donald Trump and North Korean person Kim Jong Un collapsed owed to disputes implicit U.S.-led sanctions connected the North.

The Biden medication has repeatedly said it’s acceptable to conscionable North Korea “anywhere and astatine immoderate time” without preconditions. But North Korea says a instrumentality to talks is conditional connected the U.S. dropping what it calls hostile policy, an evident notation to the sanctions and regular subject drills betwixt Washington and Seoul.

Before the submarine rocket launch, North Korea had besides tested respective different caller weapons systems implicit a six-week period, including its longest-range cruise rocket and a hypersonic rocket presently nether development.

Those weapons perchance enactment U.S. allies South Korea and Japan wrong striking range. Some experts accidental North Korea whitethorn besides successful coming weeks trial a rocket that could scope the American homeland successful bid to maximize its unit run connected the United States.

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Associated Press video writer Kim Yong Ho contributed to this report.

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