The U.S. and North Korea walked away from the latest round of negotiations over the weekend with strikingly different takes as American negotiators expressed optimism for future talks, but the Pyongyang delegation claimed the meeting was “sickening.”

“We have no intention to hold such sickening negotiations … [unless] the U.S. takes a substantial step to make complete and irreversible withdrawal of the hostile policy toward the DPRK,” said a spokesperson for North Korea’s foreign ministry, according to a statement obtained by the KCNA state news agency.

North Korean officials claimed the policy “threatens the security of the country and hampers the rights to existence and development of its people.”

On Sunday, Pyongyang negotiators said they expected the U.S. “would think and act in a proper way as it had persistently requested for the opening of the negotiations by sending repeated signals that it was ready for dialogue based on ‘a new method’ and ‘creative solution.’”

The State Department later pushed back on Pyongyang’s assertion that the working-level talks in Sweden “broke down” because the American delegation had shown up “empty-handed.”

“The early comments from the DPRK delegation do not reflect the content or the spirit of today’s eight-and-a-half hour discussion,” the department said in a statement.

The U.S.’ explanation that negotiators “brought creative ideas and had good discussions with its DPRK counterparts” came after North Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Myong-gil had offered an entirely different take during an appearance Saturday in front of the North Korean Embassy on the outskirts of Stockholm after holding talks with his American counterpart, U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Stephen E. Biegun.

Saturday’s stalled talks in Sweden marked the first time the two sides have engaged in in-depth working-level talks since negotiations broke down in February during at a second summit between Mr. Trump and Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The Hanoi talks collapsed over Mr. Kim’s demand that the U.S. deliver sweeping sanctions relief in exchange for only a partial dismantling of his nuclear arsenal. The North Korean leader’s posture at the time was widely seen to be a response to an apparent all-or-nothing offer put forward by the American side in Hanoi.

This round, U.S. officials said they “previewed a number of new initiatives,” and explained the goal was to “make progress” on the basic agreement reached in Singapore last year between President Trump and Mr. Kim to pursue denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Analysts have said the U.S. officers were likely to embrace more of a “step-by-step” approach at this weekend’s working-level talks and see what the North Korean side brought to the table in response.

But the North’s negotiator claimed that the talks “did not live up to our expectations and broke down.”

“I am very displeased,” Mr. Kim said. “It is entirely because the U.S. has not discarded its old stance and attitude that the negotiation this time failed to produce any results.”

North Korea later claimed the U.S. is “spreading a completely ungrounded story that both sides are open to meet after two weeks.”

Pyongyang has since declared that the ball is in “Washington’s court,” Reuters reported, and gave an end of the year deadline for the U.S. to propose a different plan.

The State Department has indicated that it seeks to hold another round of talks in Stockholm later this month and vowed its commitment to diplomacy and future negotiations.

The two countries will not “overcome a legacy of 70 years of war and hostility on the Korean Peninsula through the course of a single Saturday,” the State Department said. The negotiations “require a strong commitment by both countries,” the statement continued, “the United States has that commitment.”

⦁ Guy Taylor contributed to this report.

Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.