United States, South Korea to consider ending the end of the North Korea Coordination Group

Seoul: the United States and South Korea agreed to consider revising a working group created to coordinate North Korea’s policy, announced Tuesday after its implementation to block inter- Koreans.

During interviews between us, American Special Representative for North Korea, Sung Kim and his South Korean counterpart NOH Kyu-Duk Monday, both have agreed to “look at the termination of the working group” while strengthening coordination. Other levels, announced the department in a statement.

Monday, Kim said he was ready to meet North Koreans “anywhere, without prerequisites” and looks forward to a “positive answer soon”. It was planned to meet the Korean Minister of South Korean Unification Lee In-Young, who manages relations with the North Tuesday.

The Working Group was established in 2018 to help both allies coordinate their issues in terms of issues such as denuclearization, humanitarian aid, the implementation of sanctions and inter-Korean relations in the middle a burst of diplomatic engagement with North Korea at the time.

When we asked last year on the proposals of Seoul, such as the reopening of individual tourism at his northern neighbor, the American Ambassador of South Korea at the time, Harry Harris, said that “so To avoid a misunderstanding later that triggers sanctions … it is better to run this via the working group. “

Although Harris added that it was not the place of the United States to approve South Korean decisions, the remarks provoked the controversy in Seoul and former assistance to the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in Parliament. Parliament, the working group was increasingly considered an obstacle to the other relationKorean.

The administration of the moon would be finalizing the working group as a gesture of goodwill of the new US President Joe Biden, “said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, an expert in King’s King’s College London.