South Korea pressed North Korea Friday to hold bilateral talks on its nuclear program, saying Seoul is committed to playing a more active role in addressing the matter.
“We intend to meet a responsible North Korean official, in charge of the nuclear issue, anytime and anywhere,” the South’s top nuclear envoy Hwang Joon-kook said at an international conference on diplomacy attended by a number of foreign diplomats and scholars.
With such direct dialogue, the two Koreas “will be able to overcome differences, seen impossible to narrow, and find common ground step by step,” he added.
The South’s government is “taking the driving seat” in efforts to resolve the nuclear issue, said Hwang.
He cited a joint statement exclusively on Pyongyang between President Park Geun-hye and her American counterpart Barack Obama.
In the document issued after their summit last week, the leaders reaffirmed the allies’ common goal of achieving the “complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea in a peaceful manner.”
With South Korea sidelined, Hwang stressed, North Korea will be unable to gain economic assistance, normalization of relations with the U.S., and the signing of a peace treaty, which were agreed upon in the Sept. 19, 2005, deal.
The North struck the denuclearization-for-aid deal with its five dialogue partners — South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan, and Russia. But the implementation of the agreement remains suspended, with the six-party talks stalled for seven years.
With the title “Opening the next chapter: where Korean diplomacy stands,” the seminar was held to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 35-year colonial rule. (Yonhap)
