South Korea has deplored North Korea’s ongoing missile provocation at a regional security conference that has served as a venue for dialogue among the members of the six-party talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear program, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Tuesday.
At a session of the annual Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) held in California on Monday, Chun Young-hee, head of the ministry’s Korean Peninsula Peace Regime Bureau, deplored Pyongyang for threatening the international community with its ongoing nuclear and missile development, according to the ministry.
At the forum held at the University of California San Diego, Chun also stressed that the North was turning a blind eye to the dire humanitarian situation of its own people while pushing forward with its weapons programs.
The NEACD, commonly referred to as a Track 1.5 security forum, brings together government officials and civilian experts of the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
North Korea did not attend this year’s forum, according to the ministry. The reclusive country last attended the meeting in 2016, represented by Choe Son-hui, now serving as the North’s foreign minister.
At the gathering, participants also exchanged their views on the security situation in Northeast Asia and discussed a wide range of issues, such as the U.S.-Sino rivalry and the Ukrainian war, according to the ministry.
Source: Yonhap News Agency