Any rapprochement between North and South Korea must move forward "in tandem" with efforts to denuclearize the peninsula, and cannot come sooner, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday.
The State Department's point man on North Korea, Stephen Biegun, met Tuesday in Washington with South Korea's special representative for peace and security on the peninsula, Lee Do-hoon, to "further strengthen our close coordination," Pompeo told reporters.
Washington and Seoul have launched a working group to "make sure that we don't talk past each other," the secretary of state noted.
The talks in the US capital came as Seoul and Pyongyang appear to be moving ahead with their rapprochement more quickly than the Americans and North Koreans are making headway on disarming Kim Jong Un's regime.
"We have made clear to the Republic of Korea that we want to make sure that peace on the peninsula and the denuclearization of North Korea aren't lagging behind the increase in the amount of inner relationship between the two Koreas," Pompeo said.
"We view them as tandem, as moving forward together. We view them as important parallel processes, and that working group is designed to make sure they continue to remain that way."
Since the historic summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Singapore in June, talks on denuclearization have stalled, with meetings either deemed unproductive, pushed back or cancelled altogether.
A second leaders' summit is expected to take place in early 2019, according to Washington.
But so far, North Korea has taken few concrete steps to abandon its nuclear weapons, and the two sides have sparred over the meaning of a vaguely worded document signed by Kim and Trump on denuclearization of the peninsula.
At the same time, North and South Korea have made multiple symbolic gestures and concrete decisions on reconciliation.
After three summits with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in this year, Kim is expected to make a landmark visit to Seoul, though it appears that the meeting may not take place this year as initially planned by both sides.
N. Korea blows up frontline bunkers
Seoul (AFP) Nov 20, 2018 - Pyongyang blew up 10 guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone Tuesday as the two Koreas pursue a reconciliation drive, even while denuclearisation talks stall between the US and the North.
The move is one of the steps agreed during the Pyongyang summit between the South's President Moon Jae-in and the North's leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang in September.
The North told the South that it would blow up the 10 facilities almost simultaneously, Seoul's defence ministry said, adding that Southern soldiers "observed and confirmed the guard posts were completely ruined at the announced time".
Seoul has been tearing down 10 guard posts of its own, mostly using excavators, a defence ministry spokesman said.
The North has more of the facilities - which include both surface structures and underground elements - and according to Yonhap news agency the moves will leave it with around 150 in the area, with the South having about 50.
The dovish Moon has pursued a policy of engagement with its isolated, nuclear-armed neighbour, in increasing contrast to Washington, which insists pressure should be maintained on Pyongyang until it denuclearises.
Despite its name the area around the DMZ is one of the most fortified places on earth, replete with minefields and barbed-wire fences.
But under plans to ease tensions agreed in Pyongyang, the two Koreas are demilitarising the border truce village of Panmunjom, to leave it manned by 35 unarmed personnel from each side.
Officially called the Joint Security Area (JSA), the enclave is the only spot along the 250-kilometre (155-mile) frontier where soldiers from the two Koreas and the US-led UN Command stand face to face.
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N. Korea defector soldier is general's son: report
Tokyo (AFP) Nov 19, 2018
The North Korean soldier who defected to the South in a hail of bullets last year is a general's son but says most Northerners of his age have no loyalty to Kim Jong Un, according to a Japanese newspaper. Oh Chong Song's dramatic dash across the border at the Panmunjom truce village in the Demilitarized Zone - under fire from his comrades - made global headlines last year, and saw him hospitalised with serious injuries. It is very rare for the North's troops to defect at Panmunjom, a major tou ... read more
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