UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that it was "absolutely essential" for key players to hold "serious" talks on North Korea's nuclear crisis to build on a thaw in relations between Pyongyang and Seoul.
Guterres will pay an official visit to South Korea next week for talks with leaders in Seoul and to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.
"Our objective remains the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Guterres told reporters at UN headquarters.
"For that, it is absolutely essential that serious discussion take place among the key actors in this process and the UN will do everything possible to encourage them in that regard," he said.
After a series of threatening missile tests, North Korea last month agreed to hold talks with the South and send its athletes to the Winter Olympic Games, easing tensions.
The United States, however, dismissed the moves as a distraction and pressed on with a campaign to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Led by the United States, the Security Council has imposed three sets of tough economic sanctions on North Korea to cut off revenue to its military programs.
After offering to hold unconditional talks with Pyongyang, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stepped back from the offer, telling the Security Council last month that North Korea must earn its place at the negotiating table.
Guterres said the unity of the council in unanimously agreeing to slap sanctions "has created the conditions" for addressing the North Korean nuclear threat "through diplomatic engagement."
North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho wrote to Guterres this week to ask him to help keep the momentum for improved relations by opposing plans for US-South Korea military drills to be held after the Olympics.
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric has not ruled out that the UN chief could meet with a North Korean official during his visit to South Korea.
Trump hosts North Korean defectors in Oval Office
Washington (AFP) Feb 2, 2018 - US President Donald Trump welcomed six North Korean defectors to the Oval Office on Friday, a high profile and potentially provocative show of support.
The group -- whose stories Trump described as "incredible and truly inspirational" -- included a banker with knowledge of the regime's overseas operations, a former political prisoner and amputee Ji Seong-ho.
Seong-ho escaped from North Korea in 2006 and was given a place of honor just seats away from First Lady Melania Trump at Tuesday's State of the Union address.
Since coming to office Trump has made a series of bellicose remarks on North Korea and vowed to never let Pyongyang develop nuclear weapons that could hit the continental United States.
But his embrace of North Korean defectors could enrage the regime as much as any verbal barbs.
The meeting comes at a particularly sensitive time, as the Winter Olympics are about to get underway in South Korea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un -- who Trump has dismissively dubbed "rocket man" -- has so far pressed ahead with weapons programs and shows little sign of backing down.
Trump has pushed for an oil embargo against North Korea, a measure that could significantly dent the country's military operations and the broader economy.
But, according to diplomats, that effort has run into opposition from Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who believes it could cause the country's collapse.
Trump addressed the standoff in separate calls with the leaders of Japan and South Korea on Friday.
In a call with Japan's Shinzo Abe, the White House said both leaders agreed to "intensify the international maximum pressure campaign to denuclearize North Korea."
In his call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Trump wished "him and the Korean people a successful Winter Olympic Games."
US ally Jordan cuts ties with NKoreaAmman (AFP) Feb 1, 2018
US ally Jordan has cut diplomatic ties with North Korea "in line with the policies of its allies", a government source said on Thursday. The decision comes months after similar moves by Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, who are also key regional allies of the United States. In November, the US called on all countries to cut off trade and diplomatic ties with North Korea after i ... read more
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