US-N.Korea to resume working-level n-talks in Sweden

Seoul: The US and North Korea were set to resume working-level nuclear talks in Sweden on Saturday, after their preliminary meeting the previous day.
The talks will mark their first formal negotiation since February’s summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi that ended without a deal due to differences over the scope of Pyongyang’s denuclearization and Washington’s compensation, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The countries’ deputy delegation chiefs — Mark Lambert of the US and Kwon Jong-gun of the North — were said to have had preliminary contact in Villa Elfvik Strand in Lidingo, northeast of Stockholm, on Friday to discuss the schedule and administrative issues for the formal resumption of their negotiations.
The pre-negotiation session was said to be “amicable and productive”.
US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Myong-gil, will lead Saturday’s talks where they are expected to exchange their basic positions ahead of what could be another grueling tug of war.
Their negotiations will centre on how to make substantive progress in the implementation of the landmark agreement that Trump and Kim reached during their first summit in Singapore in June 2018.