US Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to meet with North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong-un's sister, while in South Korea for the Winter Olympics this month but the North Koreans cancelled at the last minute, US officials say.
"North Korea dangled a meeting in hopes of the Vice President softening his message, which would have ceded the world stage for their propaganda during the Olympics," Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayers, said in a statement.
But after Pence condemned North Korean human rights abuses and announced plans for new economic sanctions, "they walked away from a meeting or perhaps they were never sincere about sitting down," Ayers said.
Pence was going to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, and the nominal head of state, Kim Yong Nam, but the North Koreans called off the February 10 meeting two hours before it was set to start, a US official said, confirming a story first reported by the Washington Post.
The encounter would have been the first scheduled between senior officials from the Trump administration and Pyongyang, which are in a standoff over the North's development of nuclear weapons capable of hitting the United States.
Kim Jong-un, through his sister, invited South Korean President Moon Jae-in to Pyongyang to begin talks "soon."
Signs of a North-South thaw prompted speculation that it could lead to direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang after months of tension and exchanges of insults between US President Donald Trump and Kim, fuelling fears of war.
North Korea has refrained from carrying out any weapons tests since late November, when it shot off its largest intercontinental ballistic missile.
Australian Associated Press
