North Korea is open to “frank” talks with the US on denuclearisation and would suspend missile and nuclear tests while dialogue is underway, South Korea’s national security adviser Chung Eui-yong said on Tuesday after returning from a meeting in Pyongyang with leader Kim Jong Un. The leaders of North and South Koreas will hold a historic summit next month.
North Korea is willing to abandon the nuke programmes if its national security and that of its leadership is guaranteed, Chung said.
Pyongyang has considered itself at risk of invasion by the US since the Korean War ended in a ceasefire in 1953, leaving the two sides technically still at war.