Top diplomats of South Korea, US discuss ways to engage with North Korea

Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, right, meets U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, in Honolulu, Hawaii, Feb. 12. Reuters-Yonhap

Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Saturday in Hawaii to discuss ways to engage with North Korea.

The meeting follows a recent series of North Korean missile launches amid a prolonged hiatus in dialogue with Pyongyang.

"As I have repeatedly said publicly, maintaining the status quo in the Korean Peninsula issues is not an option," Chung said Friday after arriving in Honolulu.

"As time passes, North Korea's nuclear missile capability will continue to develop, and if that happens, the security conditions of the Korean Peninsula will worsen and that will lead to instability not only on the Korean Peninsula but in Northeast Asia and the entire world," he added.

North Korea staged seven missile launches in January, the largest number of missile tests it has conducted in a month. It also launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile, its longest-range missile test since late 2017.

Blinken has condemned the missile tests as serious violations of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, but has also offered to meet with North Korea anytime without preconditions.

Pyongyang, however, has remained unresponsive to all U.S. overtures, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.

The reclusive North has shunned denuclearization talks since late 2019.

Chung and Blinken were set to be joined later in the day by their Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, for trilateral talks on ways to bring North Korea back to the dialogue table.

The foreign ministerial talks follow bilateral and trilateral meetings between the countries' top nuclear envoys held earlier this week also in Honolulu.

South Korea's top nuclear envoy Noh Kyu-duk said he had very meaningful and productive discussions with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts on "several ways to engage with North Korea," and that the foreign ministers would continue their discussions when they meet. (Yonhap)