SEOUL - North Korea on Friday praised President Donald Trump for saying Washington may pursue an unspecified “new method” in nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang.
Those talks have been stalled for months by disagreements over trade-offs between sanctions relief and disarmament steps.
In a statement released by state media, North Korean diplomat Kim Myong Gil, who will be leading planned working-level talks with Washington, also praised Trump’s decision to fire his hawkish former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who advocated the “Libya model” of unilateral denuclearization as a template for North Korea. Kim said he is optimistic about negotiations with the United States, which the North earlier said could resume in a few weeks.