The U.S. is willing to meet North Korea “without preconditions” despite almost a year of stonewalling from Pyongyang, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Thursday. 

“We hope that the DPRK will respond positively to our outreach,” Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said at a press briefing in New York. “We don’t have any hostile intent toward the DPRK. And we have made clear since the beginning of this administration that we are prepared to meet them without preconditions.”

The ambassador did not give a direct answer as to whether the U.S. and South Korea discussed the issue of an