The chief nuclear envoys of South Korea and the United States condemned North Korea’s continued military provocations and belligerent rhetoric as they held talks in Seoul on Thursday, the foreign ministry said.
The meeting between Kim Gunn, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, and his U.S. counterpart, Jung Pak, took place ahead of their trilateral meeting with their Japanese counterpart, Hiroyuki Namazu, set for later in the day.
“They vowed stern responses based on the firm bilateral alliance and agreed to act sternly with the international community against the military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow that jeopardizes global security,” the foreign ministry said.
Kim also met one-on-one with the Japanese envoy on Wednesday.
The series of meetings came as the North has been stepping up bellicose rhetoric, such as leader Kim Jong-un denouncing the South as an “invariable enemy” and threatening to completely occupy the South in the event of war earlier this week.
On Sunday, North Korea also test-fired a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile carrying a hypersonic warhead, about a week after it fired hundreds of artillery shells near the western inter-Korean sea border.
The meetings in Seoul also came after North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier this week amid growing concerns over their deepening military cooperation.
The U.S. and its allies have accused the North of providing arms support to Moscow for use in its war in Ukraine in return for Russia’s assistance in Pyongyang’s advanced weapons development.
Following Choe’s meeting with Putin late Tuesday, the Kremlin said that Russia was keen on developing relations further with North Korea in all areas, including “sensitive ones.”
Seoul’s foreign ministry said earlier that the three envoys will discuss North Korea’s recent provocations and its military cooperation with Russia and joint efforts to respond.
Source: Yonhap News Agency