North Korea Denuclearization: Beijing, Seoul To Hold Talks

Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday that South Korean and Chinese nuclear envoys will hold talks Friday on North Korea’s denuclearization as well as ways to bring lasting peace to the Korean peninsula.

Special representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs, Lee Do-hoon, was scheduled to meet his counterpart Kong Xuanyou in Beijing on Friday.

The ministry said the meeting between the two top envoys was part of "close consultations between South Korea and China for complete denuclearization and the establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula,” South Korean news agenvcy Yonhap News reported.

The two hold the titles of chief delegates to the six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear program, a forum that also included the United States, Russia and Japan.

The meeting comes a week after Kong held talks with the North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in Moscow where they also had a trilateral meeting with Russia's top nuclear envoy Igor Morgulov.

The ministry said Lee and Kong planned to have in-depth discussions on advancing the denuclearization process and sharing the information on the results of the recent Moscow event during their Friday’s meeting.

Earlier this month, Choe too met with Chinese vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou to discuss issues of the Korean Peninsula. North Korea had issued a preliminary statement on the Korean Central News Agency that the two delegates met to exchange views on bilateral cooperation.

Yonhap News had then reported North Korea was cultivating allies in China and Russia ahead of its upcoming negotiations with the United States. The South Korean news agency quoted a source saying, "Choe's visits to China and Russia, which precede U.S. Secretary State Mike Pompeo's fourth visit to the North, as well as his trip to Northeast Asia, seem to be aiming at explaining North Korea's stance on its nuclear weapons. They seem to be intended to secure support in relation with denuclearization measures and end-of-war declaration."

As part of denuclearization talks, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Oct. 6, during which the latter agreed to allow international inspectors in to see the country’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site. Though North Korean officials said they blew that test site up, there was no outside verification of the claim.

“There’s a lot of logistics that will be required to execute that, but when we get them, we’ll put them on the ground,” Pompeo said.

He also added the “real progress” in the denuclearization talks would come at a second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump.

“Both the leaders believe there’s real progress that can be made, substantive progress that can be made at the next summit. And so we’re going to get (that meeting) at a time that works for each of the two leaders in a place that works for both of them. We’re not quite there yet, but we’ll get there,” Pompeo said, USA Today reported.