US hopes North Korea will take 'opportunity to engage diplomatically': Antony Blinken

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on May 3 asked North Korea to embrace the diplomacy while he briefed the allies on a new strategy that Washington will embark upon stressing the low-key progress over former US President Donald Trump’s pageantry. In London, for the first in-person Group of Seven (G7) meetings in at least two years, the US Secretary of State consulted his counterparts from Japan and South Korea on US President Joe Biden’s new policy approach, which has already been criticised by North Korea.

"I hope that North Korea will take the opportunity to engage diplomatically and to see if there are ways to move forward toward the objective of complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," Blinken told reporters.

"It is, I think, up to North Korea to decide whether it wants to engage or not on that basis," he said after meeting his UK counterpart Dominic Raab. Further, alluding to North Korea’s initial reaction, the US Secretary of State said, “We'll look to see not only what North Korea says but what it actually does in the coming days and months.” Blinken also ordered an assessment of North Korea’s policy after taking over Trump’s reportedly unusual, highly personalised diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 

Blinken notes failure of US administrations

Notably, even though Trump boasted about saving Asia from war and said he deserved a Nobel Peace Prize, the former US President was unsuccessful in striking a permanent agreement with Kim to end North Korea’s nuclear programme. Blinken, as per reports, even acknowledged that several US administrations in the past including the Democratic ones failed to achieve their respective goals with the totalitarian state.

"What we have now is a policy that calls for a calibrated, practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy with North Korea to try to make practical progress," Blinken said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on May 3 met with Republic of Korea Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi. With the Japanese delegation, Blinken discussed "COVID-19 and the climate crisis as well as our trilateral cooperation with the Republic of Korea for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" Blinken has also met with the Minister of External Affairs (MEA) Dr. S. Jaishankar on May 4.

Image credits: AP