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Talks with US would be nothing more than 'a political tool' for Washington: North Korea

Talks with US would be nothing more than 'a political tool' for Washington: North Korea

Trump-Kim in Singapore summit

North Korea holding talks with the United States would be nothing more than "a political tool" for Washington,a senior North Korean diplomat said on Saturday, ahead of a US envoy's visit to South Korea.

Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said talkswould not work out between the two countriesand there will be no change in North Korea's policy.

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"We do not feel any need to sit face to face with the US, as it does not consider the DPRK-US dialogue as nothing more than a tool for grappling its political crisis," Choe said in a statement carried by state-run KCNA news agency.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's formal name.

US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun is due to visit South Korea next week to discuss stalled talks with North Korea.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Wednesday that USPresident Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un should meet again before the USelections in November, which would help resume the stalled nuclear negotiations.

Trump and Kim Jong Un met for the first time in 2018 in Singapore.

They met again in Vietnam in 2019, but the talks fell apart when Trump said Kim had failed to offer enough nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles in exchange for lifting international sanctions.

At their third meeting, in June 2019 at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, the two agreed to restart negotiations. Working-level talks between the two sides in Sweden in October were broken off.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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