Chief nuke envoys of S. Korea, U.S. hold phone talks on peninsula denuclearization

 The top nuclear envoys of South Korea and the United States held their second phone talks in less than a week on Friday to discuss cooperation to achieve denuclearization and lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, the foreign ministry said.

Noh Kyu-duk, the ministry’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, and his U.S. counterpart, Sung Kim, discussed follow-up efforts to last week’s summit between Presidents Moon Jae-in and Joe Biden, where the leaders stressed diplomacy and dialogue as “essential” to denuclearization efforts.

“The two sides discussed ways for bilateral cooperation in actively implementing the results of the latest South Korea-U.S. summit and making substantive progress toward complete denuclearization and the establishment of lasting peace on the peninsula,” the ministry said in a press release.

Noh and Kim held their first phone talks on Saturday, the day after Biden announced the appointment of Kim as Washington’s point man on the North in what appears to be a move to signal U.S. readiness to resume dialogue with the North.

Later in the day, Lee Moon-hee, director-general for North Korean nuclear affairs, spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart, Oleg Burmistrov, the ministry said.

They shared assessments on the U.S.’ North Korea policy review and other related issues and continued to maintain close cooperation for progress toward denuclearization and peace, it said.