South Korean President Moon Jae-In called for a “speedy resumption” of talks between the United States and North Korea Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly.
The call comes a week after Washington said Pyongyang had violated UN Security Council resolutions by firing two ballistic missiles into the sea.
“I call for a speedy resumption of dialogue between the two Koreas and between the United States and North Korea,” Moon told world leaders in New York.
“I hope to see that the Korean peninsula will prove the power of dialogue and cooperation in fostering peace,” he added.
Talks between North Korea and Washington have been stalled since the collapse of a 2019 summit between the authoritarian state’s young leader Kim Jong Un and then US president Donald Trump over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return.
Trump said he should have won the Nobel Peace Prize for preventing war, but North Korea never signed a permanent agreement to end its nuclear program.
President Joe Biden’s administration said in an April policy review on North Korea that the United States was willing to engage Pyongyang.
But it also signaled it was looking more for a practical approach following the unusual personal diplomacy of Trump, who met three times with Kim.
In July, the Koreas announced the restoration of official military and political communication links that were severed more than a year ago.
Last week, North Korea fired “two short-range ballistic missiles” from South Pyongan province into the sea off its east coast, Seoul said.
They came hours before South Korea successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile, becoming only the seventh country in the world with the advanced technology and raising the prospect of a regional arms race.
North and South Korea have remained technically at war since the end of their 1950-53 conflict.
Follow our socials Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google News.
