The top nuclear envoys of the United States and South Korea met on Sunday to discuss methods to work together to confront North Korea’s “evolving nuclear and military threats,” according to local media.
According to the Yonhap news agency, US Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim met with his South Korean counterpart Kim Gunn in Seoul on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Asan Plenum 2023 conference, a security event hosted by a local think tank.
According to the Foreign Ministry statement, the two sides exchanged views of the current security situation on the Korean Peninsula and discussed “joint responses to North Korea’s nuclear threats.”
The envoys agreed to further up pressure on Pyongyang to stop provocations and return to disarmament discussions, citing the agreements reached at the South Korea-US summit in Washington last week.
It was their third meeting this month, following a bilateral session in Seoul on April 6 and phone talks on April 13.
In reaction to the two partners’ nuclear and strategic information-sharing pact, North Korea announced that it would boost up its counter-“military deterrence” against longstanding adversaries South Korea and the US.
According to state media, it blasted this week’s summit agreement between the two sides on boosting the US’ extended deterrence as a “product of heinous hostile policy” toward Pyongyang.
According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), President Yoon Suk Yeol’s state visit to the United States this week was “the most hostile, aggressive, and provocative trip, and a dangerous one for a nuclear war.”
Yoon met with President Joe Biden in Washington and announced the acceptance of the Washington Declaration, which states that the United States will exchange information on nuclear and strategic operations and planning with South Korea and will periodically deploy strategic assets to the country.
“The ‘Washington Declaration’ on raising the practicality of the ‘extended deterrence’ provided by the US is a typical product of the heinous hostile policy towards the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea),” the KCNA wrote in an English-language editorial.
“The dangerous nuclear war moves of the US and the puppet group running amok in suffocating the DPRK while denying the DPRK’s existence will never be forgiven, and they will pay dearly for their rash acts,” it warned.
Kim Yo-jong, North Korea’s powerful sister, blasted the Washington Declaration on Saturday as representing “the most hostile and aggressive will of action” by Seoul and Washington, warning that the allies’ plan will only result in “more serious danger.”