The United States and North Korea have agreed to return to the negotiating table to talk about the reclusive country's nuclear program for the first time since talks collapsed in February.
According to a statement from the U.S. State Department, talks between the two sides will resume at some point over the next seven days.
"I can confirm that US and DPRK officials plan to meet within the next week. I do not have further details to share on the meeting," US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement Tuesday.
Choe Son Hui, North Korea's first vice-minister of foreign affairs, also confirmed the two countries would meet again to discuss North Korea's nuclear program.
"The DPRK and the U.S. agreed to have preliminary contact on Oct. 4 and hold working-level negotiations on Oct. 5.," said Choe Son Hui. "The delegates of the DPRK side are ready to enter into the DPRK-U.S. working-level negotiations. It is my expectation that the working-level negotiations would accelerate the positive development of the DPRK-U.S. relations."
Previous talks between the U.S. and North Korea's about their nuclear program collapsed back in February after President Donald Trump left the meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, after Kim insisted that all U.S. sanctions be lifted against his country. North Korea also says they will not agree to unilateral disarmament of its nuclear program.
Trump and Kim met again in June in a historic moment as Trump became the first American president to step foot in North Korea after touring the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
The two sides agreed to meet, despite a series of short-range missile tests by North Korea, which the country said was in response to joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, which ended last month. President Trump has dismissed concerns over the short-range missile tests, even as other world leaders have condemned them and said North Korea had violated the United Nations Security Council resolutions.
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