US representative for N.Korea to visit Seoul this week

US special representative for North Korea, Sung Kim announced that he will visit Seoul this week for talks with his South Korean counterpart on ways to restart dialogue with Pyongyang.
Kim's trip to Seoul will follow his meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Noh Kyu-duk and Takehiro Funakoshi, respectively, in Washington this week, reports Yonhap News Agency.

"Special Representative Noh and I had an excellent meeting this afternoon in advance of tomorrow's (Tuesday) trilateral meeting with Japanese Director-General Funakoshi," the US diplomat told reporters after his meeting with Noh at the State Department on Monday.

Kim explained the two discussed ways to bring North Korea back to the dialogue table, including a possible declaration of the end of the Korean War, which was proposed last month by South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

"Special Representative Noh and I also discussed the end of war proposal, and I look forward to continuing those discussions and other issues of mutual concern when I'm in Seoul later this week," he said.

North Korea remains unresponsive to US overtures for dialogue and has stayed away from denuclearization talks with Washington since 2019.

Noh said he and Kim discussed ways to build trust with North Korea.


"(We) discussed various ways of engagement, such as humanitarian assistance for the North and other trust-building measures to help quickly restart dialogue and diplomacy," the South Korean official said in a joint press event with his US counterpart.

Kim said the US remains open to dialogue with North Korea - IANS