US envoy visits S Korea for talks on DPRK issues

SEOUL -- US envoy for policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) visited the Republic?of Korea (ROK)?to discuss DPRK's nuclear program and other related issues, Seoul's foreign ministry said Friday.

Sung Kim, who assumed the post of US special representative for DPRK policy last month, arrived in South Korea on Thursday for his five-day trip to the country.

He held talks Friday with Hwang Joon-kook, Seoul's special representative for peace and security affairs on the Korean Peninsula, to exchange views on the DPRK's nuclear program and other related issues.

The US envoy told reporters after the talks that it would be a mistake if the parties involved in the talks rush back to the long-stalled negotiations without assurances that the DPRK is ready to work for a complete, verifiable denuclearization.

He stressed the need for the DPRK's demonstration of its sincere promise to dismantle its nuclear program.

The six-party talks, which involves China, the DPRK, the United States, South Korea, Russia and Japan, was initiated in Beijing in August 2003 but has been stalled since December 2008.

The DPRK has been ready to resume the six-party talks "without preconditions," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Nov. 20 after talks with Choe Ryong Hae who made an eight-day visit to Russia as a special envoy of DPRK leader Kim Jong Un.