STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - North Korea’s top negotiator said late on Saturday that working-level nuclear talks in Sweden between officials from Pyongyang and Washington had been broken off, dashing prospects for an end to months of stalemate.

The North’s chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Myong Gil, who spent much of the day in talks with an American delegation, cast the blame on what he portrayed as U.S. inflexibility, saying the other side’s negotiators would not “give up their old viewpoint and attitude”.

A senior North Korean official warned that the country may suspend negotiations with the U.S. over its nuclear arsenal, in the latest sign of pressure on Washington after the two sides failed to reach an agreement at last month’s U.S.-North Korea summit.

North Korea's leader wants to complete denuclearisation quickly and hold a second summit with Donald Trump soon, South Korea's president says.

There is renewed hope of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and a restart of discussions that have stalled over the last few weeks since June's landmark summit between US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader.

Amid smiles and diplomatic niceties, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his North Korean counterpart exchanged barbs and accusations Saturday in Singapore.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said North Korea is "of course" closer to denuclearization, but he acknowledged it will take some time before that happens and said the schedule for divesting the country of its missiles and weapons would be set by Kim Jong Un.

As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with North Korean officials Saturday to discuss how to achieve the U.S. goal of denuclearization of the communist nation, the world was paying less attention to a related challenge: how to stop the North from continuing to sell nuclear capabilities and weapons to rogue regimes around the world.

This week was a very good week for peace in the Pacific.

Maybe this is the beginning of something big. But it started off small.