Appoints new US envoy for North Korea.
Joe Biden, the president of the United States, has appointed a special envoy to engage North Korea in dialogue, saying he and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in remain “deeply concerned” about Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal.
At a joint news conference on Friday, Biden also said he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – under the right conditions.
The US president told reporters at the White House that his ultimate goal was the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, but he said he was “under no illusions” about the difficulty of getting North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenals.
“We both are deeply concerned about the situation,” Biden said, speaking alongside Moon. “Our two nations also share a willingness to engage diplomatically with [North Korea] to take pragmatic steps that will reduce tensions” on the Korean Peninsula.
To help drive that effort, Biden said, veteran State Department official Sung Kim would serve as special US envoy for North Korea.
A Korean-American diplomat, Sung Kim served as special envoy for North Korea under former President Barack Obama and helped set up former President Donald Trump’s summits with Kim.
He has also been ambassador to South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia and most recently served in an acting capacity as the top US diplomat for East Asia.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
