Seoul says working with U.S. to resume stalled DPRK talks

World
Europe

Unification Minister of Republic of Korea (ROK) Kim Yeon-chul said Tuesday that it's working with the United States in bid to resume the stalled denuclearization negotiations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Yonhap reported.

"The overall situation shows that we are facing a lull, but I think you should know that we are working in various ways to resume negotiations," Kim said during a press briefing held in Seoul. "South Korea and the U.S. are also sharing the need for keeping the situation under control."

But he did not elaborate on the "ways" under consideration.

Photo of ROK's Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul /Yonhap Photo

The minister also urged efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to the DPRK. Last week, Seoul pledged to provide rice to ease the food shortage in the North (DPRK）, as well as an 8 million U.S.-dollar donation to international organizations to help address humanitarian issues in the North.

Kim said politics should not play a part in helping people in need.

"Humanitarian assistance does not carry a meaning more or less than just that. It is an internationally accepted agreement that (humanitarian assistance) should be approached separately from politics," he said.

Humanitarian efforts

Separately, the United Nations Security Council on Monday granted sanctions exemption to allow the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) to carry out aid programs in the DPRK to improve the health and nutrition of people in the impoverished country, the UN said on its website.

The exemption, granted on April 11, paves the way for UNICEF to import items to deliver safe water supplies to communities and enable effective treatment at hospitals, especially for malnourished children and mothers, the UN document said cited by Yonhap.

The approved items worth some 5.75 million U.S. dollars in total include emergency health kits, wheelchairs and electronic devices.

Including the latest approval, the total number of humanitarian exemptions related to the DPRK currently in effect stands at 22. The exemptions are valid for six months.

Push for talks

The DPRK has been pushing for sanctions reliefs in talks with the U.S. The talks broke down at the Hanoi summit in February between its leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump after the two sides failed to agree on steps of denuclearization.

Yonhap said ROK's President Moon Jae-in earlier proposed holding an inter-Korean summit with Kim as part of efforts to improve the ties and stalled denuclearization negotiations. But the DPRK has not responded to it.

DPRK's leader Kim Jong Un supervises a military drill in DPRK, in this May 10, 2019 photo supplied by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). /Reuters Photo

On the U.S. side, Trump told Fox News on Sunday that DPRK's Kim Jong Un was willing to remove only one or two of the five nuclear sites in his country during the Hanoi summit.

Trump said he told Kim the proposal was "no good".

"When I left Vietnam where we had the summit, I said to Chairman Kim ... And I think very importantly I said, look, you are not ready for a deal because he wanted to get rid of one or two sites," Trump said.

"But he has five sites ... I said what about the other three sites. That is no good," he added.

Pyongyang and Washington have caught up in new rows after Washington seized one of DPRK's cargo ships for "violating international sanctions" earlier this month. Pyongyang has asked the U.S. to return the ship and said the "illegal act of robbery" directly violated the agreement between the two sides reached in Singapore in June 2018.

(Cover: A DPRK soldier keeps watch toward the south through a binocular telescope at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two sides, ROK, May 1, 2019. /Reuters Photo)