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| Chung Eui-yong, then head of the Republic of Korea's presidential National Security Office, walks to board an aircraft as he leaves for Pyongyang at a military airport in Seongnam, south of Seoul, on Sept 5, 2018. (File photo by=JUNG YEON-JE / POOL / AFP) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] SEOUL: Seoul's top diplomat has stated that the United States and South Korea should actively consider offering conditional incentives to North Korea to resume denuclearization talks.
Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong made the remark during a discussion in New York on Wednesday (local time) while Seoul and Washington have been exploring ways to re-engage with North Korea to break the impasse in the nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang. South Korea and the U.S. have been looking at possible humanitarian assistance to the North in areas like public health, antivirus quarantines, sanitation and clean water.
"We shouldn't be timid on offering North Korea incentives if those incentives can be snapped back at the first sign of noncompliance. We can do it. We can make such an arrangement," Chung said during the session hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. He’s accompanying President Moon Jae-in to attend the U.N. General Assembly. "It is very important that we show North Koreans that they have concrete things to gain, if they sit with us, if they come back to the negotiating table," he said.
Meanwhile, in his U.N. speech Tuesday, President Moon Jae-in proposed the two Koreas and the United States, probably joined by China, declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.
