South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha attends the first plenary session of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Nagoya, Aichi prefecture on Nov 23, 2019. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP）

Inter-Korean cooperation doesn’t necessarily have to wait for the United States’ denuclearization talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to progress, Kang Kyung-wha, the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea, said on Tuesday after meeting her US and Japanese counterparts in California.

“Our basic stance is that North Korea-US talks and inter-Korean dialogue complement each other in a virtuous cycle,” she told reporters after meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other diplomats in Palo Alto.

Our basic stance is that North Korea-US talks and inter-Korean dialogue complement each other in a virtuous cycle

Kang Kyung-wha, the Foreign Minister of the ROK

The ROK is also referred to as South Korea and DPRK as North Korea. 

Kang said that with US-DPRK talks in stalemate, it is essential to revive “North Korea’s engagement momentum” through inter-Korean talks.

The meeting came after ROK President Moon Jae-in said inter-Korean cooperation could help ease the way for sanctions to be lifted on the DPRK.

It is unclear whether the DPRK would welcome the proposed steps.

READ MORE: Moon: Broader inter-Korean ties will help DPRK-US talks

Pyongyang has spent the last year criticizing ROK and has said it plans to demolish a tourist facility at Mount Kumgang, once seen as an example of inter-Korean cooperation.

ROK suspended tours to the mountain in 2008 after a 53-year-old tourist was shot and killed when she entered an off-limits area.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Eun-han told a briefing on Wednesday that ROK is actively considering starting “individual tours” to DPRK if they secure guarantees of tourist safety from Pyongyang.

“We understand individual tours are not bounded by the UN sanctions,” he said.

ALSO READ: Moon offers DPRK broader inter-Korean cooperation in '20

“There are issues regarding inter-Korean cooperation that need discussions between South Korea and the United States, but also areas in which South Korea can proceed with independently,” Kim said.

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul told a private gathering in Seoul on Tuesday that the ROK government will do what it can to mend ties with Pyongyang this year rather than waiting for DPRK relations with the United States to improve.

The US State Department has said Washington and Seoul are committed to a unified response to the DPRK.

Denuclearization talks are stalled amid DPRK demands for more concessions, and US assertions that Pyongyang must take more concrete steps toward giving up its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

Kang also said Pompeo repeated a request for the ROK to deploy military resources to a US-led naval force in the Middle East, with the US secretary arguing nations that have “economic stakes” with the region should contribute.

The ROK has not committed to sending troops but Kang said Seoul would “explore how to contribute.”