U.S. nuclear envoy to arrive in Seoul on Wednesday to meet with S. Korean counterpart
  • 5 years ago
Just days after meeting with the six-party delegates from Russia,.... Seoul's nuclear envoy will be meeting with his U.S. counterpart.
Their meeting comes as denuclearization negotiations between North Korea and the U.S. are not making much progress in recent months.
Our Lee Ji-woon starts us off.
Upon arriving in South Korea on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun will meet with Seoul's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Lee Do-hoon on Thursday.

This time, the two nuclear envoys will be first meeting as the delegates of the six-party talks, discussing the results of recent contacts between Pyeongyang and Washington as well as strategies on the nuclear issue for next year.

On Friday they will meet again, this time as the heads of the South Korea-U.S. working group on North Korea.
This is the second time the group is meeting face to face, the first time being last month, when Lee visited Washington.

As the group covers various issues surrounding the Korean Peninsula, the meeting will be divided into two sessions, according to a South Korean official at the foreign ministry.
The first sesson will cover issues regarding North Korea's denuclearization negotiations, and the second one will be on the inter-Korean exchanges and working within the sanctions framework.
The official said, it's likely that Lee and Biegun will not join the latter session, where working-level officials from Seoul's ministries of foreign affairs, defense and unification along with those from the Blue House will be present.

The working-level officials had a video conference earlier this month.
The group aims to meet face-to-face once a month, and hold a video call in the middle to check progress.

It is unclear whether Biegun will be meeting with anyone else in the country other than his counterpart during his four day stay in South Korea.
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.
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