Linde hopes for new nuclear weapons talks in Sweden

On Saturday, North Korea abandoned negotiations on the country's nuclear weapons program and robot tests, held at a conference facility on Lidingö outside Stockholm.

Afterwards, white pictures of the meeting are painted.

North Korea's delegation claims to be disappointed by the lack of "new and creative" solutions from Washington. A spokesman for the country's foreign ministry said in a statement that North Korea did not want to participate in "such stifling negotiations as this one if the United States does not take practical measures to stop its hostile policies."

Instead, the United States states that it had "creative ideas and good discussions".

The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs also sees the meeting as constructive.

“The parties have been able to clarify positions for each other on different issues in ways that we hope have laid the foundation for continued dialogue. The situation encompasses many difficult issues where the parties are often far apart. Nothing can be expected to be resolved at a single meeting, "Foreign Minister Ann Linde said in a statement to TT.

The Foreign Minister calls on North Korea and the United States to ensure that the dialogue does not stop. The countries have been invited to a new meeting in two weeks.

“Sweden has made it clear to the parties that we are at the disposal of new calls. We hope this will happen. Dialogue is the only way to a peaceful solution of the situation on the Korean peninsula, ”says Ann Linde.

What made the calls cut is unclear. According to Jerker Hellström, research leader at the Security Policy Unit at the Total Defense Research Institute (FOI), the delegations have probably had minimal room for maneuver and been backed by their leaders in Pyonyang and Washington.

- It is obvious that the parties have had too high expectations or have not made enough good bids, says Jerker Hellström.

US President Donald Trump should have been prepared to offer a three-year waiver of sanctions on North Korea's textile and coal exports if Kim Jong-Un begins to disarm, according to US media reports. The offer is hardly in proportion to what the dictatorship would have to sacrifice, the FOI researcher says:

"If North Korea is to extinguish large parts of its nuclear weapons program, then something will take time to resume, while sanctions can be reintroduced fairly immediately," says Jerker Hellström.

The US was quick to pick up on Sweden's offer of new calls and thanked yes the same evening as the negotiations failed. Something that could indicate that the Lidingö talks were actually constructive - and that the new meeting could be done, according to Hellström.

- From an American point of view, it sounds as if you are fairly unreservedly prepared for new negotiations. You must have received some positive signal during the meeting that makes you think it's worth continuing, says Jerker Hellström.