US remains open to dialogue with North Korea: State Dept.

2024-09-21 13:39:08      点击：022

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, and U.S. President Joe Biden / Korea Times file

The United States remains committed to engaging with North Korea in a diplomatic approach to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department said Friday.

Pyongyang earlier said the continued deadlock in dialogue between the two was because of what it claims was U.S. hostility toward the North.

"The United States remains committed to a diplomatic approach to the DPRK, and we also call on the DPRK to engage in dialogue," Jalina Porter, principal deputy spokeswoman for the State Department, said when asked to comment on the North's renewed accusation.

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

In a commentary carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, Friday (KST), North Korea also accused the U.S. of a "double standard," noting that Washington called the North's recent ballistic missile launches a provocation while keeping silent on one by South Korea that followed hours later.

North Korea test fired two short-range ballistic missiles earlier this week, which coincided with Seoul's test of an indigenous submarine-launched ballistic missile the same day.

Washington earlier condemned the North Korean missile launches, calling them a clear violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.

However, State Department spokesman Ned Price said dialogue was the only way forward.

"We are, in the midst of this, committed to a diplomatic approach to the DPRK, and we call on the DPRK to engage in a meaningful and substantive dialogue with us," he said earlier.

Pyongyang has stayed away from denuclearization talks with Washington since early 2019. (Yonhap)