North Korea walks away from nuclear talks, blames US' failure to meet a year-end deadline

North Korea has walked away from the nuclear talks with the United States as Pyongyang on Tuesday said that Washington had ignored the year-end deadline for the denuclearisation talks. North Korea has said that it is no longer bound by commitments to halt nuclear and long-range ballistic missile testing. Earlier it was reported that after meeting with his US counterpart, North Korean President Kim Jong Un had set a December 31 deadline for denuclearisation talks with Washington.

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North Korea-US failed talks

According to international media reports, White House national security adviser Robert O'Brien said at the time of the summit the United States had opened all channels of communication with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea's official name. O'Brien further added that he hoped Kim would follow through on denuclearisation commitments he made at the summit with US President Donald Trump. The talks, for now, is appearing to be off the table with North Korea announcing at the UN-backed Disarmament conference that it is no longer interested in talks. 

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North Korea's envoy Ju Yong Chol, a counsellor at DPRK's mission to the United Nations in Geneva, said at the conference that the United States had been regularly conducting military exercises with South Korea, despite his country halting all nuclear and ballistic missile testing in order to build confidence with Washington. Ju further added that the United States had been long blocking the development of North Korea with its "brutal and inhumane" sanctions on the country. 

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Ju further reportedly warned that if the United States will continue to practice hostile policy towards North Korea, the Korean peninsula will never be denuclearised. If the United States tries to enforce unilateral demands and continue to impose sanctions, North Korea will be compelled to take a new path. According to reports, DPRK in previous failed talks had said that it could consider giving up its nuclear arsenal if the United States provided security guarantees by removing its troops from South Korea and withdrawing its own nuclear arsenal from South Korea and Japan. 

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