Washington. October 16. INTERFAX – The resumption of U.S.-North Korea denuclearization talks is possible during the Olympic Games, which are scheduled for the summer of 2021, U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said Friday.
“You know, there might be an opportunity next year in the event,… if the Tokyo Olympics are held,” O’Brien said during a webinar hosted by the Aspen Institute.
“I think the North Koreans are interested in participating in the Tokyo Olympics. This can happen either before, or during or after the Olympic Games, when the parties can come together and hold negotiations that will lead to certain prosperity and better times in terms of the economy for the people of North Korea,” the presidential adviser added.
O’Brien stressed that Pyongyang has no other option but to resume talks after the U.S. presidential election on November 3.
“I hope that after the elections, as soon as the North Koreans realize that there is no other option, we will have a chance to hold negotiations,” the adviser said.
He said he was “conducting a campaign of maximum pressure on North Korea” to inform the North Koreans “of serious concern over their nuclear program.”
In July, Kim Jong-un, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who holds the position of first deputy head of the organizational and instructor department of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, said that the talks between the DPRK and the United States are useless.
“This is my personal opinion, but there will be no summit between the United States and North Korea this year. Until there is a decisive change in the position of the United States, the summit between the DPRK and the United States will be unnecessary and useless both this year and in the future, at least for us,” the statement of the politician was quoted by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
However, she added at the time: “We’re not saying we’re not going to denuclearise it, we just can’t do it now.”
Negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea have stalled after a failed summit in Hanoi in February 2019.
