South Korea's top nuclear negotiator left for Beijing on Thursday to meet with his Chinese counterpart and discuss measures to counter North Korea's growing missile and nuclear threats.
Hwang Joon-kook, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, will meet with Ambassador Wu Dawei later in the day to share the results of Wednesday's trilateral talks involving the chief nuclear negotiators of the U.S. and Japan.
On Wednesday, Hwang held talks in Seoul with Sung Kim, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, and Junichi Ihara, director-general of the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.
Following the meeting, the three sides announced that they had agreed to enhance pressure on North Korea, while continuing efforts to bring the communist nation back to talks.
The five nations, along with Russia, are all members of the now-suspended six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The forum last met in late 2008.
Kim, the U.S. envoy, is also scheduled to hold a separate bilateral meeting with Wu in Beijing later in the day.
The flurry of diplomacy comes as North Korea has raised tensions in the region by claiming to have successfully test-launched a ballistic missile from a submarine underwater and made significant progress in miniaturizing nuclear bombs.
"For North Korea, China is politically and economically the most important country, so there is a constructive role that only China can play," Hwang told Yonhap News Agency by phone before his departure. "We have to get China to eagerly and completely join our efforts to resolve (the North Korean nuclear issue)." (Yonhap)
