Biegun says door to dialogue still open for North Korea

Washington's top nuclear envoy who is currently in Seoul... expressed hopes of continuing dialogue with North Korea despite the regime's latest string of provocations.Our Lee Ji-won has this report. Despite North Korea's recent provocative actions,... the door to dialogue is still open,... according to Washington's special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun. He was quoted by Seoul's foreign ministry as saying so during his 25-minute closed-door meeting with minister Kang Kyung-wha Friday morning.Minister Kang said the North's most recent launches do not help alleviate military tension on the Korean Peninsula,... and called them "very concerning."She added that serious talks are needed between Seoul, Pyeongyang and Washington in order to achieve complete denuclearization and permanent peace on the Peninsula. Biegun reportedly agreed with that, and reiterated the importance of their alliance at a time like this. After his sitdown with the minister,... Biegun met with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Do-hoon, Special representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs.The two reportedly had an in-depth discussion of how to respond to the North's missile launches. The two nuclear negotiators also hosted their working-group meeting.This time, it was rather a big delegation from Washington,... including the U.S. Mission to the UN, and officials from the Departments of Defense and Treasury. While no details were given on the agenda,... the Foreign Ministry says the two sides shared their assessments on the recent situation and an in-depth discussion of the various ways they can cooperate to achieve their shared goal of denuclearization and peace.South Korea's plans to give humanitarian food aid to the North was one likely topic for Friday's meeting. And despite the recent increase in tension due to the North's missile launches, a source confirmed that the food aid had in fact been brought up during their talks. However, Thursday's missile launches seem to have put Biegun's guard up.He was supposed to field questions from reporters during his way out of the ministry,... but the plan was scrapped at the request of the U.S. side.Biegun also met with other top officials in Seoul in the afternoon,... including the Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul and Kim Hyun-chong, 2nd Deputy Chief of National Security Office.Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.