ISTANBUL

South Korea's Unification Minister, Chung Dong-young, said on Saturday that changes to joint military drills with the US would be "inevitable" if a US-North Korea summit is to take place in the first half of next year.

"It is a very sensitive issue, but we cannot move toward a North Korea-US summit while continuing joint South Korea-US military drills," Chung told reporters in Seoul, according to Yonhap News.

Chung emphasized that a meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is a necessary step for reviving long-stalled inter-Korean relations.

He expressed regret that the two leaders did not meet during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, saying that "It seems Pyongyang miscalculated."

Trump had repeatedly shown a willingness to meet Kim ahead of his visit to Seoul late last month, but Pyongyang did not respond to the invitation.

Chung noted that the period around Trump’s planned visit to Beijing in April would be a "critical moment," stressing that the government in Seoul needs to work diligently over the next five months, from now until March, to help make a North Korea-US summit possible.

Earlier on Tuesday, South Korea’s national intelligence agency said it had detected signs that North Korea had been preparing for a possible meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un during the APEC gathering in South Korea.