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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (Reuters-Yonhap) |
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit South Korea next week for talks with high level officials there, the state department said Tuesday.
His planned visit comes after South Korean President Moon Jae-in proposed declaring an end to the Korean War as a way of bringing North Korea back to the dialogue table over its denuclearization process.
It will be part of his three-nation trip that will begin Sunday, according to the state department.
He will first head to Tokyo where he will meet with his counterparts from Australia, India and Japan in a four-way forum known as the Quad.
"Secretary Pompeo will also visit Ulaanbaatar October 7, and Seoul October 7-8 for meetings with senior officials," the state department said in a released statement.
Pompeo's visit to Seoul will mark the first of its kind in over a year since June 2019 when he accompanied US President Donald Trump to the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea has since stayed away from denuclearization talks.
As part of efforts to restart the denuclearization negotiations, Moon called for international efforts to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly last week.
The South Korean president insisted the move would provide a security guarantee that Pyongyang has long sought.
Earlier Tuesday, however, North Korea's ambassador to the world body, Kim Song, said his country will not "sell off" its dignity for what he called a "brilliant transformation" of its economy.
The North Korean diplomat also claimed his country has obtained a "reliable security guarantee" based on absolute strength.
Pyongyang declared having perfected its nuclear and long-range missile capabilities in late 2017 when it staged its sixth and last nuclear test, followed by a series of intercontinental ballistic missile launches. (Yonhap)
