The foreign ministers of South Korea and China expressed satisfaction Friday with their cooperation to help curb the advances of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, while renewing efforts to resume a "meaningful dialogue" with Pyongyang.
Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi held bilateral talks earlier in the day in Beijing, with the agenda focusing on North Korea's nuclear and missile programs as well as bilateral relations.
Yun and Wang "expressed satisfaction that the two nations have strengthened strategic cooperation and communication, based on their firm and joint perception about the denuclearization of North Korea," according to a statement released by South Korea's foreign ministry after the Yun-Wang talks.
"In addition, the two ministers agreed to work together to seek various ways to resume a meaningful dialogue to curb the advance of North Korea's nuclear capability and for practical progress on the denuclearization of North Korea," the statement said.
Friday's talks between Yun and Wang came days before President Park Geun-hye is to hold a bilateral summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering.
The meeting between Yun and Wang was mainly aimed at fine-tuning the agenda for the planned bilateral summit between Park and Xi, Seoul diplomats said.
Yun, who is also scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with his Australian counterpart, Julie Bishop, later in the day, arrived in Beijing late Thursday to attend the APEC ministerial meeting.
In his opening remarks, Wang said South Korea and China "maintain close communication and cooperation as friendly neighbors. We are satisfied with the current stage of development of bilateral ties."
Yun extended greetings to Wang and voiced his hope that the upcoming APEC summit would be a success.
The upcoming summit between Park and Xi comes as North Korea is reportedly operating a new facility that could produce uranium-enriched fuel for atomic weapons at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon.
The reported new facility is located near another uranium-enrichment plant, which was identified by a group of U.S. nuclear experts in 2011.
If confirmed, the new facility would allow North Korea to significantly boost its ability to obtain a new source of fission material to make atomic bombs, in addition to its widely known plutonium-based nuclear weapons program. (Yonhap)
