The test, the first of its kind by North Korea, triggered an emergency U. N. Security Council meeting and a call for global action by the United States.
A U.S. diplomat responsible for North Korea will participate in an informal conference this month in Singapore that North Korean officials have attended in the past but are not expected to do so this year, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.
Ambassador Joseph Yun's trip was announced after North Korea on Tuesday tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that Pyongyang says can carry a large nuclear warhead and some experts believe has the range to reach Alaska.
The test, the first of its kind by North Korea, triggered an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting and a call for global action by the United States.
Yun, the U.S. State Department's special representative for North Korea policy, will travel to Singapore July 11-13 to attend the conference of the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD), and will then travel to Myanmar.
The NEACD, founded in 1993, describes itself as a forum where officials from China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia, and the United States can regularly meet, attending in a private capacity rather than as official government representatives.
According to participant lists published by the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) at the University of California at San Diego, which sponsors the conference, North Korean officials came to the meetings in 2016 and in 2012.
"We understand that North Korea will not participate in this year's NEACD meeting," said Katina Adams, a spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
"Yun's participation in NEACD in no way indicates the United States is prepared to engage with North Korea," Adams said.
Asked if there were plans for Yun to meet North Korean officials during his trip, or if she could rule out such a meeting, Adams replied: "There are no sideline meetings on Ambassador Yun's schedule that I am aware of."
"The United States remains open to credible talks on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. However, conditions must change before there is any scope for talks to resume," she said, without saying what had to happen to hold talks.
The North Korean mission to the United Nations and the IGCC were not immediately available for comment.
From Singapore, Yun will travel July 17-18 to Myanmar, where North Korea will also be on the agenda, Adams said.
In September, the then top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Russel, told a congressional hearing there could be "a few residual pockets" in the Myanmar military who might still have interactions with North Korea.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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