The U.S. and North Korea are considering exchanging liaison officers, an incremental step towards building formal diplomatic relations, two sources with knowledge of the discussions said on Monday.

The two high-level diplomatic sources said the first step forward could be the exchange of officers.

On the U.S. side, sources said there would be several liaison officers sent to set up office in North Korea, led by a senior foreign service officer, who speaks Korean, if this plan were to move forward.

The State Department declined to comment on the report.

News of the potential development comes ahead of a planned second summit in Hanoi next week.

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are due to discuss the dismantling of Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

Trump and Kim first met in June 2018 at a historic summit in Singapore, where Kim emphasised his readiness for “complete denuclearisation.”

But the two sides made no concrete commitments in terms of how the communist-ruled and internationally isolated North Korea would dismantle its nuclear arsenal – and what the U.S. would offer in return.

Recent reports have suggested that little meaningful progress has been made since Trump and Kim met in 2018.

Trump and Kim signed a joint statement in Singapore that included commitments from each country “to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.”

The current stalemate had left North Korea expecting some significant gesture on the part of the US, the sources said. (dpa/NAN)

– Feb. 19, 2019 @ 10:39 GMT |