South Korea urges North Korea not to miss opportunity to resume talks with US

ISTANBUL

South Korea called Monday on longtime rival North Korea not to miss an opportunity to resume dialogue with the US after President Donald Trump expressed an interest in meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, local media reported.

"The government's position on a North Korea-US summit does not depend on how likely it is, but it believes the meeting must take place," Yonhap News Agency cited Unification Minister Chung Dong-young as saying.

"I hope North Korea will not miss the opportunity created by Trump's expression of interest," he added.

Chung's remarks came after Trump reaffirmed his interest in meeting with Kim again during a meeting with South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok in Washington, DC last Friday.

Speculation has grown that Trump may seek to resume summit talks with Kim during his scheduled visit to China from late March to early April.

Terming a resumption of North Korea-US summit talks as "necessary" and "mutually beneficial" to the two countries, the minister said it would also be essential for South Korea's "present and future."

Chung said that as far as he was aware, there had been no specific contact between Pyongyang and Washington regarding a resumption of dialogue.

North Korea’s leader said during last month's party congress that the country has “no reason not to get along” with the US, provided that Washington abandons its "hostile policy" and recognizes North Korea's status as a nuclear-weapon state.