US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun is scheduled to meet with his North and South Korean counterparts in Seoul on 3 February, the Department of State said in a press release.
“Biegun will travel to Seoul February 3 for a meeting with ROK [Republic of Korea] Special Representative Lee Do-hoon,” the release said on Thursday. “Biegun will also have follow-up meetings with his North Korean counterpart [Kim Hak Chul] to discuss next steps to advance our objective of the final fully verified denuclearization of North Korea and steps to make further progress on all the commitments the two leaders made in Singapore”.
Biegun also noted that the United States is working with the UN Sanctions Committee to clear up a backlog of requests from humanitarian groups for access to North Korea as both aid providers and aid monitors.
Trump told reporters Thursday that he would announce the date and the venue of the new meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un next week, adding that his administration is making tremendous progress with Pyongyang.The situation on the Korean Peninsula has reportedly improved since beginning of 2018 during which time North and South Korea concluded important agreements and Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump held a historic summit in Singapore in June last year. The two leaders concluded an agreement stipulating that Pyongyang would make efforts to promote the complete denuclearization of the peninsula in exchange for Washington and Seoul freezing their military drills and a potential lifting of US sanctions.
The first ever US-North Korean summit was held in Singapore on 12 June. Following the meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un confirmed his intention to denuclearize, and US President Donald Trump pledged to provide security guarantees to Pyongyang. Since then, Pyongyang has been waiting for Washington to fulfil the agreements reached, and the US administration is unhappy about the lack of new steps by the DPRK on nuclear disarmament.