Pyongyang to talk with Washington under right conditions

A senior North Korean diplomat in charge of U.S. affairs said Saturday Pyongyang will hold talks with Washington "under the right conditions," raising the possibility of bilateral contact amid willingness expressed by U.S. President Donald Trump to meet with the North's leader, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Choe Son-hui, director-general of the North America bureau chief of North Korea's foreign ministry, told reporters at the Beijing International Airport that her country "will hold dialogue under right conditions" with the U.S. administration.

The diplomat was in Beijing and was returning to Pyongyang. 

Choe led a North Korean delegation that met with a group of American experts, headed by Suzanne DiMaggio -- director of the U.S. think tank New America -- in Oslo, Norway, earlier this week, according to South Korean diplomatic sources.

This week's meeting took place amid a let-up in military tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The North did not conduct a nuclear test or a long-range rocket launch in April despite a view that it may take such a provocative act to mark a series of key political events in the month.

It was also held as South Koreans picked Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic Party as their new president. Expectations are running high over a change of mood in inter-Korean ties that have long been frosty.

When asked whether Pyongyang is preparing to hold dialogue with Seoul's Moon administration, Che replied, "We will observe the situation."

Source: MENA