N. Korea needs written guarantees that US will end drills to start talks

Pyongyang needs written guarantees of security and an end to military drills on the Korean Peninsula from Washington for negotiations between the sides to begin, a senior Russian senator, Vladimir Dzhabarov, has said.

"In order for talks between the US and North Korea to start, certain special conditions must be met,” Dzhabarov, deputy head of the upper house Committee for International Relations, told RIA Novosti. The most important one is that “Washington [gives] up staging military drills near the Korean Peninsula. And Pyongyang needs written guarantees of that,” he added.

According to Dzhabarov, the Americans have already violated their promise to curb the exercises in the autumn. It was the US move to hold new exercises that forced North Korea to resume ballistic missile tests, which were earlier put on hold, he said.

Also on Friday, US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, said that a “sustained cessation of North Korea’s threatening behavior” would be required for the US to agree to sit down at the negotiations table. "Apart from that step, there are no preconditions for talks, nor will we accept preconditions from North Korea or others," Tillerson said during a UN Security Council meeting dedicated to the Korean issue.
 [rt.com]
 15/12/17