North Korea willing to resume talks with U.S. in late September: KCNA

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un meet at the start of their summit at the Capella Hotel on the resort island of Sentosa, Singapore on June 12, 2018. (REUTERS File Photo)

SEOUL, September 9 (Reuters): North Korea is willing to restart talks with the United States in late September over its nuclear programme, a senior North Korean diplomat said on Monday, following a protracted deadlock since a failed summit in February.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had set a year-end deadline in April for the United States to show more flexibility and agreed with U.S. President Donald Trump to reopen working-level talks when they met again in June, but that has not happened.

The latest overture came from Vice North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, who said Pyongyang was willing to have "comprehensive discussions" with the United States in late September at a time and place agreed between both sides.

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hoped to return to denuclearisation talks with North Korea in the coming days or weeks.

But Choe highlighted that Washington should present a new approach or the talks could fall apart again.

"I want to believe that the U.S. side would come out with an alternative based on a calculation method that serves both sides' interests and is acceptable to us," Choe said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

"If the U.S. side toys with an old scenario that has nothing to do with the new method at working-level talks which would be held after difficulties, a deal between the two sides may come to an end."

Negotiations aimed at dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes broke down at a meeting between Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February.