US waiting to see if North Korea wants to engage in diplomacy

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a news conference with Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab following their bilateral meeting in London, May 3, 2021 during the G7 foreign ministers meeting. Blinken said on Sunday the United States is waiting to see if North Korea wants to engage in diplomacy over the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Reuters-Yonhap

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday the United States is waiting to see if North Korea wants to engage in diplomacy over the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday injected fresh urgency into attempts to engage North Korea in dialogue over its nuclear weapons, with Biden saying he would meet its leader Kim Jong Un under the right conditions.

"We are waiting to see if Pyongyang actually wants to engage," Blinken said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" program. "The ball is in their court."

"The best chance we have to achieve the objective of total denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is to engage diplomatically with North Korea," Blinken said.

North Korea has rebuffed U.S. entreaties for diplomacy since Biden took over from Donald Trump, who had three summits with Kim and famously exchanged "beautiful letters" with the third-generation leader. (Reuters)