이도훈-비건 '북미대화 진전 민감한 시기...긴밀 조율'
Following the collapsed talks between North Korea and the U.S. in Hanoi... Seoul's top nuclear envoy is in Washington to meet his U.S. counterpart and discuss what comes next.
Lee Ji-won starts us off.
The nuclear envoys of South Korea and the U.S. see eye-to-eye that they're in a very sensitive period of the negotiations between North Korea and the U.S., and have promised to further tighten their cooperation on Pyeongyang.
Seoul's foreign affairs ministry says Lee Do-hoon, Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs and his U.S. counterpart Stephen Biegun on Wednesday exchanged their evaluations on the second Kim-Trump summit.
Biegun again explained the summit details to Lee and they discussed what steps should be taken next.
The two sides also reaffirmed how communication between the allies was as tight as it could be, at various levels,... including the leaders, foreign ministers and they promised to maintain such strong cooperation.
This comes as the denuclearization talks took a sudden turn at the Hanoi summit, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump failing to reach an agreement on the North's denuclearization steps and the corresponding measures U.S. would provide in exchange.
The U.S. State Department also confirmed the meeting between the nuclear envoys, but there was one glaring difference.
According to Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency, the State Department said the two special representatives discussed their continued and coordinated efforts on achieving the final, fully, verified denuclearization of North Korea.
The North is known to be strongly opposed to the use of those terms of denuclearization.
After their talks, the two nuclear envoys also met with their Japanese counterpart, Kenji Kanasugi for a working-lunch.
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.
