The U.S. remains open to diplomacy with North Korea, the country’s Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said on Monday, however stressing that it was “hard to envision” circumstances in which another summit could take place before the upcoming U.S. presidential election in November.

Speaking in a webinar hosted by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank, the German Marshall Fund, Biegun argued that continued economic pressure on North Korea caused by international sanctions would likely keep Pyongyang interested in talks with the U.S.

“The hardship in North Korea is palpable,” Biegun said. “The pressures are immense on the regime, and the regime continues to prioritize expenditure — its resources on its military capabilities.”

“That also is going to require us to maintain a full deterrent, which we will, and we do,” he continued. “I don’t think anybody doubts that. And [we will] continue to leave the door open to diplomacy.”

Nevertheless, Biegun — who was promoted to deputy secretary of state in December, but who retains his position as U.S. special representative for North Korea — said that COVID-19 and other factors made another summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and DPRK leader Kim Jong Un unlikely in the near future.

“It’s hard to envision circumstances where we could do an in-person, international summit,” he said. “I think it’s probably unlikely between now and the U.S. election.”

Biegun’s comments follow months of stagnant diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea. The two sides last met for working-level talks in Stockholm, Sweden in October 2019 — and those talks never produced any sort of agreement.

Earlier this month, a tell-all memoir by former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton revealed deep divisions within the U.S. government over the best way to deal with North Korea, most notably in the run-up to the two countries’ February 2019 summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.

But the deputy secretary of state on Monday stated that the key challenge leading up to the Hanoi summit lied with North Korean negotiators, who were seemingly incapable of making key decisions on nuclear issues.

“I have felt repeatedly that negotiators that [were] put across from us simply don’t have the authority to make those decisions on behalf of their government,” Biegun said. “In the run up to the Hanoi summit, the North Korean negotiators were largely prohibited from discussing matters related to the nuclear weapons at all.”

“They saved that all for the summit meeting itself between the two leaders, and the result that came from that summit was somewhat predictable on that basis.”

Edited by Kelly Kasulis