Donald Trump nominates Stephen Biegun as Deputy Secretary of State

The United States President Donald Trump nominated the US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun to become the next Deputy Secretary of state on October 31. Biegun will be serving as the State Department's second-in-command and will be replacing John Sullivan, who was nominated to serve as the next US ambassador to Russia. However, both the nomination still require Senate confirmation. According to a senior State Department official, Biegun will keep his North Korea portfolio even if he is confirmed for the deputy role.

READ: US, South Korea & Japan Engage In Talks On North Korea Denuclearization

Stephen Biegun was appointed to the role of the United States special representative for N Korea back in August 2018 to lead efforts to negotiate the final, fully verified the denuclearisation of North Korea. Biegun has culminated two summits between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un out of which the second summit in Vietnam back in February reportedly ended without an agreement for N Korea to abandon its weapons program. Earlier this month Biegun also engaged in talks with Japanese and South Korean counterparts where the delegates re-established the importance of continued close coordination on North Korea in order to successfully reach a level of complete denuclearization. 

READ: US-North Korea Denuclearization Talks Come To A Dead End

North Korea and the United States

The meeting in Stockholm was considered the first of its kind following a February meeting between the North's leader Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump. The meeting comes after the Pyongyang's rebellious trial of a sea-launched ballistic missile last week. The leaders of both the US and North Korea in their first summit in June adopted an agreement on the "complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula". The progress has been considerably slow. There is an extreme interest mainly in Japan and South Korea to see if Trump and Kim could strike a deal. Trump over time proved that he is ready to take risks with North Korea which no other American leader has taken in the past even though critics think otherwise. 

READ: North Korea, US To Hold Working-level Denuclearisation Talks On Oct 5

READ: Ban Ki-Moon Urges North Korea To Take Denuclearisation Steps

(With agency inputs)