U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun plans to give a speech at a public forum next week amid a protracted stalemate in nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang.

Biegun is slated to deliver a luncheon speech titled "Security and Unification Issues on the Korean Peninsula" during a forum hosted by the Korea Economic Institute of America on Tuesday, according to the think tank.

This file pool photo shows U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun

The remarks will be off the record, it later informed guests in an email, citing a "quick message" from the special representative.

The last time the U.S. envoy spoke publicly was at a conference hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on March 11, which followed the no-deal summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in February in Vietnam.

North Korea has since stepped up calls on the U.S. to ease its hard-line stance against removing sanctions from Pyongyang, and twice launched missiles and projectiles in apparent protest.

The second launch on May 9 occurred while Biegun was in Seoul for meetings with South Korean officials, and the envoy canceled all planned press availabilities.

Trump has played down the latest North Korean missile launches in an apparent bid to keep diplomacy alive. Breaking with U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, who stated the launches constituted a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, Trump said he views them "differently."
(Yonhap)

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