S Korea, US hold talks in Seoul to discuss Korean Peninsula affairs

Rhee Dong-yeol, director general at the South Korean foreign ministry's Korean Peninsula peace regime bureau, met with Alex Wong, deputy US special representative for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) policy.

The talks were held in Seoul for the working group meeting that was launched in November 2018 to consult about the peninsula's denuclearization, inter-Korean relations and sanctions toward Pyongyang.

Yoh Sang-key, Seoul's unification ministry spokesman, told a press briefing that he was told that during the meeting, the two sides would discuss inter Korean cooperation, which South Korean President Moon Jae-in offered to make during his New Year speech.

Moon said in his New Year speech and press conference last month that his government will push this year for the inter Korean cooperation projects, including the reconnection of railways and roads along the eastern and western Korean Peninsula across the inter Korean border, and other cooperation in border areas.

Yoh reiterated the South Korean position that individual tour by South Koreans to the DPRK's scenic resort of Mount Kumgang was not subject to consultations between Seoul and Washington, saying that South Korea would explain its stance to the United States from the cooperation perspective.

Tour by South Koreans to Mount Kumgang, launched in 1998, had been run for about 10 years before being shutdown in 2008 when a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a DPRK soldier after allegedly venturing into off-limit areas.

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