1. On November 1, Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Kim Hong-kyun held a meeting and a working luncheon with new Special Representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun of the US Department of State, who was on a visit to the Republic of Korea.

° The meeting marked the first formal meeting between the ROK and US head delegates to the Six-Party Talks, who had exchanged greetings on the occasion of the ROK-US foreign and defense ministers’ 2+2 meeting in October.

2. The two sides, following up on the ROK-US high-level strategic dialogue held during Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to the ROK last week, where strategies for sanctioning and pressuring North Korea had been discussed, agreed to make more original efforts to produce synergistic effect from a new, envisioned Security Council resolution; unilateral sanctions from the two countries’ allies; and the global community’s pressure on the North.

° Furthermore, the two sides pointed out with North Korea failing to demonstrate any willingness at all to come forward for denuclearization talks, calls for a dialogue with no clear purpose will not be conducive to the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue. On that note, they reiterated that it is now more important than anything else to further tighten sanctions and intensify pressure on the North and thereby to make it realize that it has no other option but to denuclearize.

° Special Representative Kim noted that in the face of the unprecedented nuclear and ballistic missile threats by North Korea, the “international community vs. North Korea” framework is being firmly set, led by the ROK and the US. He added that it is crucial to remain consistent in strategies against the North and thereby to make Kim Jong-un realize that he has to choose between the regime’s survival and nuclear weapons.

° Special Representative Yun, explaining in detail the outcome of his visit to China, including that of the US-China strategic security dialogue, shared with the ROK side the outcome of the US assessment and analysis of the work to adopt a new Security Council resolution that would call for tightened control over North Korea’s coal exports, and the results of Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin’s recent visit to North Korea.

° He added that the US side had clearly informed the Chinese side that, in view of the gravity and urgency of the current situation, North Korean issues are being dealt with in a way totally different from those of the past.

3. Today’s meeting came under the ROK’s strategic roadmap, under which the ROK-US 2+2 meeting, the ROK-US-Japan vice foreign ministerial meeting and the ROK-US high-level strategic dialogue had also been held in October. As such, it served as an opportunity for the ROK and the US to once again and firmly reaffirm their watertight coordination under the current circumstance where North Korea’s nuclear development is posing a grave security threat to not only Northeast Asia but the entire world.

4. The ROK and the US shared the view that the close coordination between the ROK and the US on North Korea should remain in place regardless of the outcome of the presidential election in the US. They agreed to exchange visits as soon as possible after the presidential election for further close consultations.


* unofficial translation