Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa makes a report to a meeting of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee at the parliamentary building in Seoul on Aug. 21, 2018. Photo by Yonhap
SEOUL, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa said that North Korea asked to postpone the planned high-level talks between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his North Korean counterpart Kim Yong Chol because of a "tight schedule."
"The United States told us that North Korea wanted to postpone the meeting because 'they run a tight schedule,'" said Kang at a plenary session of the foreign affairs and unification committee of the National Assembly on Thursday, according to Yonhap News.
Kang didn't offer further reasons for the postponement when a lawmaker of the major opposition Liberty Korea Party questioned on the background.
While avoiding direct answers, Kang said she hasn't talked to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yet and U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun and his South Korean counterpart Lee Do-hoon, special representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs, had a phone call about it.
She said the United States notified the South Korean government of the postponement before the State Department made an announcement on Wednesday. Kang added that the U.S. midterm election results will not have much impact on the ongoing process for denuclearizing North Korea's nuclear weapons.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he expects to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "sometime early next year" on Wednesday.
"We're very happy how it's going with North Korea. We think it's going fine," he said at a press conference, a day after the midterm elections. The Republican Party lost its House of Representatives majority to the Democratic Party but increased its seats in the Senate.
Wall Street Journal reported that North Korea called off the planned talks in New York, citing U.S. officials.
The U.S. State Department said Wednesday that the high-level talks between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his North Korean counterpart Kim Yong-chol planned for Thursday was postponed and the meeting could resume when their "schedules permit."
