Nuke envoys of S. Korea, U.S., Japan set for talks on ways to engage with N. Korea

By Byun Duk-kun

HONOLULU, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- The top nuclear negotiators of South Korea, Japan and the United States were set to hold talks here in Honolulu on Thursday on ways to restart dialogue with reclusive North Korea.

The talks follow a series of North Korean missile launches that included the firing of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, the longest range ballistic missile fired by Pyongyang since late 2017.

"I believe now is a very important time that will decide if we will return to the time of cold winter or a season of warm atmosphere as it is here," South Korea's top nuclear envoy, Noh Kyu-duk, said of the North Korea issue on Wednesday.

"That is why we have had various consultations between South Korea and the U.S., together with Japan, until now, and I am here with a hope that it will be another opportunity for us to work toward engagement (with North Korea)," he added.

Noh and U.S. Special Representative for the DPRK Sung Kim are set to hold a series of bilateral and trilateral meetings with their Japanese counterpart, Takehiro Funakoshi. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

The three nuclear envoys will also attend their countries' foreign ministerial talks, set to be held here on Saturday.

North Korea staged seven rounds of missile launches in January, marking the largest number of missile tests it conducted in a month.

Noh said this week's discussions in Hawaii will seek ways to restart engagement with North Korea.

One of such ways, he has noted, may be Seoul's proposal to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, which Pyongyang has called an "interesting idea."

The U.S. has repeatedly offered to meet with North Korea without any preconditions, also stressing that it will be open to discussing any issue.

North Korea, however, remains unresponsive to U.S. overtures. Its last denuclearization negotiations with the U.S. were held in late 2019.

Noh highlighted the importance of cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan to bring North Korea back to the dialogue table.

"It is expected to provide a timely opportunity to have in-depth discussions on detailed measures on how to engage with North Korea in the first half of this year," he said earlier of this week's meetings.

A spokesperson for the South Korean foreign ministry has said the countries' top diplomats and nuclear envoys will seek "creative ways" to engage with North Korea when they meet here this week.

bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)