Employees of the Medicament Management Office of the Daesong District in Pyongyang provide medicine to residents as the state increases measures to stop the spread of illness in Pyongyang, North Korea, Monday, May 16, 2022. (Photo by=AP/Jon Chol Jin) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] SEOUL: North Korea has remained unresponsive for the second day to South Korea's attempt to offer dialogue on COVID-19 medical supplies and health care cooperation, a ministry official here said Tuesday.
The Ministry of Unification had sought to deliver a related fax message to the North on Monday through their liaison office. It’s seeking to hold working-level consultations on the ongoing epidemic in the impoverished neighbor and assistance in medical supplies, including vaccines, masks, and test kits. The two Koreas held their routine phone call at 9 a.m. Tuesday, but Pyongyang hasn’t expressed its intention to accept the message yet, according to the unification ministry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "As North Korea is aware of our stance on cooperation in disease prevention, our government will wait for the North's response without pressing it," he said, stressing that the North will need time to review whether to accept the message.
If it receives a response from Pyongyang, the ministry will take a "practical and realistic" approach to review various ways to hold the working-level consultations, including an online videoconference, the official said. During a plenary session of the diplomacy and unification committee at the National Assembly later in the day, Unification Minister Kwon Young-se said that providing the North with assistance through international agencies can be an option.