US-North Korea Nuclear Talks To Resume Within Days

Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un in North Korea earlier this year (Picture: PA).

A senior North Korean diplomat has said Pyongyang and the US have agreed to resume nuclear negotiations on Saturday.

Recent months have seen a stalemate between the two countries over the withdrawal of sanctions in exchange for disarmament.

In a statement released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said that preliminary contact on Friday will be followed by 'working-level' talks on Saturday.

No indication was given as to where the meeting would take place.

"It is my expectation that the working-level negotiations would accelerate the positive development of the DPRK-US relations," he said, referring to North Korea as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Negotiations reached a standstill after failed talks at a Vietnam summit in February between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 

Talks broke down when North Korea demanded the US loosen sanctions on North Korea in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities. 

A flurry of North Korean missile tests followed shortly after, Kim Jong Un supervising several himself. 

Pyongyang welcomed Mr Trump's recent decision to fire former national security adviser John Bolton, who supported a "Libya model" of unilateral denuclearisation as a template for North Korea.

The first summit between the US and North Korea took place in Singapore on June 2018, but no concrete plans for denuclearisation were reached.

Last week, President Trump said another summit "could happen soon" but did not elaborate on when or where.