The United States is engaged in direct talks with North Korean diplomats even as President Trump has publicly claimed negotiations are a waste of his secretary of state's time, Reuters reports. U.S. negotiator Joseph Yun has quietly been in conversation with officials in Pyongyang's United Nations mission, despite Trump's not infrequent threats against the country and its leader, Kim Jong Un.
Conversation between the U.S. and North Korea "has not been limited at all, both [in] frequency and substance," explained one senior State Department official.
Yun is a part of the so-called "New York channel" to North Korea. He initially worked specifically on freeing U.S. citizens held by Pyongyang. Yun, for example, traveled to North Korea in June to help return Otto Warmbier stateside. But Yun's mission "is [now] a broader mandate than that," the State Department official said.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Trump DOJ sues to block California redistrictingSpeed Read California’s new congressional map was drawn by Democrats to flip Republican-held House seats
-
GOP retreats from shutdown deal payout provisionSpeed Read Senators are distancing themselves from a controversial provision in the new government funding package
-
Catholic bishops rebuke Trump on immigrationSpeed Read ‘We feel compelled’ to ‘raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity,’ the bishops said
-
House releases Epstein emails referencing TrumpSpeed Read The emails suggest Trump knew more about Epstein’s sex trafficking of underage women than he has claimed
-
Newsom slams Trump’s climate denial at COP30speed read Trump, who has called climate change a ‘hoax,’ declined to send any officials to this week’s summit
-
UK, Colombia halt intel to US over boat attacksSpeed Read Both countries have suspended intelligence sharing with the US over the bombing of civilian boats suspected of drug smuggling
-
Trump pardons 2020 fake electors, other GOP alliesSpeed Read The president pardoned Rudy Giuliani and more who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss
-
Supreme Court to decide on mail-in ballot limitsSpeed Read The court will determine whether states can count mail-in ballots received after Election Day
