HONOLULU, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) — South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Saturday in Hawaii to discuss the best ways to engage with North Korea.
The meeting follows a recent series of North Korean missile launches amid a prolonged hiatus in dialogue with the reclusive North.
Chung said he looked forward to having discussions on how to deal with North Korea.
“We have a lot to cover, and we are very concerned about the current situation on the Korean Peninsula,” the top South Korean minister said at the start of his bilateral meeting with Blinken.
“I hope we can also have a good exchange of our views on how to deal with the situation,” he added.
Chung and Blinken were set to be joined later by their Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, for trilateral talks. Chung and Hayashi held bilateral talks earlier in the day.
Blinken agreed they had much to discuss, noting the U.S. and South Korea “have been working very closely for many months now.”
“It’s a testament to the vitality of the relationship, partnership between the United States and the Republic of Korea,” said Blinken, referring to South Korea by its official name.
“Of course, we work on bilateral issues. We are working on regional issues together, but we are also working on global issues, everything from COVID to Climate. So we have a lot to talk about,” he added.
North Korea staged seven rounds of missile launches in January, marking the largest number missile tests it conducted in a month. It also fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile, its longest-range missile launched since late 2017.
Blinken has condemned the North Korean missile launches as serious violations of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions but offered to meet with North Korea anytime without preconditions.
North Korea, however, remains unresponsive to all U.S. overtures, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.
Pyongyang has avoided denuclearization talks since late 2019.
The foreign ministerial talks also follow bilateral and trilateral meetings between the countries’ top nuclear envoys held earlier this week in Honolulu.
South Korea’s top nuclear envoy Noh Kyu-duk earlier said he had very meaningful and productive discussions with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts on “several ways to engage with North Korea,” and that the foreign ministers would continue their discussions when they meet here.
Source: Yonhap News Agency