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Wednesday, June 19, 2019, 16:06
ROK unification minister urges rapid resumption of DPRK-US talks
By Xinhua
Wednesday, June 19, 2019, 16:06 By Xinhua

This Feb 28, 2019 photo shows US President Donald Trump, right, and leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong-un taking a walk after their first meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam. (EVAN VUCCI / AP)

SEOUL — The Republic of Korea (ROK)'s Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, the country's top policymaker in charge of inter-Korean affairs, on Wednesday called for the rapid resumption of denuclearization negotiations between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States.

Kim made the remark during a security forum in Seoul, hosted by the unification ministry, saying the most important would be the prompt resumption of talks between Pyongyang and Washington though it would take time to narrow down differences in technical issues, according to local media reports.

Stressing the importance for the top-down approach in the denuclearization talks, the unification minister also put an importance on working-level talks at various levels to narrow differences in a concrete manner

The minister said he had knowledge of the DPRK and the United States preparing for new negotiation plans based on their respective assessments on the second summit between top DPRK leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump that ended with no agreement in late February in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

ALSO READ: ROK Blue House 'aware of' DPRK leader's letter to Trump in advance

Trump was slated to visit Seoul on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Japan's Osaka next week. ROK President Moon Jae-in expressed his hope to meet again with the DPRK leader as early as possible.

Stressing the importance for the top-down approach in the denuclearization talks, the unification minister also put an importance on working-level talks at various levels to narrow differences in a concrete manner.

Kim said the role of working-level talks would be important for the successful DPRK-US summit, noting that all-out efforts should be made to lead the third DPRK-US summit into the practical denuclearization and the operation of the peace process on the Korean Peninsula.

READ MORE: ROK unification minister calls for inter-Korean summit

He said that the denuclearization negotiations would not be a one-shot game, but a game of repetition, adding that the respective stances Pyongyang and Washington confirmed in the Hanoi summit would become a significant clue to a substantial outcome from the third DPRK-US summit.


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