Seoul: South Korea's vice foreign minister met with his US counterpart on Wednesday to discuss methods to re-engage North Korea in discussion, including the possibility of declaring a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, according to Seoul's foreign ministry.
South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman discussed the alliance and other issues of mutual interest, including Covid-19 vaccines and the global supply chain crisis, during their 60-minute meeting in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, according to reports.
The vice ministers "assessed seamless communications and coordination underway at all levels on ways to advance the Korea peace process, including the end-of-war declaration, and agreed to continue consultations on practical measures to bring North Korea to the dialogue table," according to a press release from the ministry. It provided no additional information about the meeting, which focused on the sensitive matter of Seoul's drive for the statement in an effort to rekindle the Korean peace process.
Despite reaffirming a "shared commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," the US State Department issued a separate statement on the meeting's outcomes that made no direct mention of the proposed end-of-war declaration.
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