U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Alex Wong, the deputy special representative for North Korea, to an ambassador-level position at the United Nations, the White House announced on Tuesday.

Wong is the president’s number-two envoy in talks with the DPRK, but his nomination to the UN post comes amid a long diplomatic stalemate between the two countries that has dragged on for months.

The U.S. and North Korea disagree on a wide range of issues — sanctions relief, the fate of the North’s nuclear weapons program, and the presence of U.S. military forces on the Korean peninsula, among others — and