High time for US-North Korea talks to start again seriously: UN chief

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Friday (January 18) pressed for denuclearization negotiations between the United States and North Korea to start again seriously, as President Donald Trump met with a North Korean envoy at the White House.

“We believe it’s high time to make sure that the negotiations between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea start again seriously, and that a road map is clearly defined for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Guterres told a news conference.

A top North Korean nuclear envoy met President Donald Trump at the White House after holding talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday in a diplomatic flurry aimed at laying the groundwork for a second U.S.-North Korea summit.

The visit of Kim Yong Chol, Pyongyang’s lead negotiator with the United States and a hardline former spy chief, marked a rare sign of potential movement in a denuclearization effort that has stalled since a landmark meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore last year.