PYONGYANG, Sept 16 (Agencies): The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday welcomed the upcoming working-level negotiation with the United States.
In a statement released by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the Director General of the Department of U.S. Affairs of the Foreign Ministry said the DPRK-U.S. dialogue has two options, either improve the relations or add to the hostility toward each other.
"In this sense, the upcoming working-level negotiations will be an occasion decisive of the future road of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue," the unnamed official said.
He added that the discussion of denuclearization "may be possible when threats and hurdles endangering our system security and obstructing our development are clearly removed beyond all doubt."
Last week, Pyongyang said it was willing to speak with Washington later in September through a message conveyed by KCNA.
The talks between Pyongyang and Washington has been stalled since the no-deal summit meeting between DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam in late February.
"Whether the DPRK-U.S. negotiation will be a window for a chance or an occasion to precipitate crisis is entirely up to the U.S.," the statement said.
Trump announced last Tuesday he had fired his National Security Advisor John Bolton over disagreements on foreign policy issues, including the DPRK.
Bolton was known for taking a tough stance on Pyongyang, which brings hopes of reaching a deal between DPRK and the United States in the upcoming negotiations.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited US President Donald Trump to visit Pyongyang in a letter sent in August amid stalled denuclearisation talks, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday, citing diplomatic sources.
Kim, in the letter sent in the third week of August, spoke of his "willingness" for a third summit and extended an invitation for Trump to visit the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, the Joongang Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an unidentified source.
Trump on Aug. 9 said he had received a "very beautiful letter" from Kim. But US officials have not said anything about a second letter in August.
Trump and Kim have met three times since June last year to discuss ways to resolve a crisis over North Korea's missile and nuclear programmes, but substantive progress has been scant.
Their first two meetings were formal summits, the second of which, in Vietnam in February, broke down after they failed to narrow a gap between US demands for North Korean denuclearisation and a North Korean demand for relief from sanctions.
They met for a third time on June 30 in the Demilitarised Zone between the two Koreas and agreed to restart working-level talks but that has not happened.
Since the June meeting, North Korea has several times tested short-range projectiles.
The White House, the US State Department and the North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
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