US Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo and his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha held
emergency talks on Wednesday, following North Korea's cancellation of
ministerial talks with Seoul and threats to pull out of the Trump-Kim Jong-un
summit scheduled to be held in Singapore on June 12.
A US State
Department source confirmed to Al Jazeera on Thursday that the call took place
between Pompeo and Kang.
"Secretary
Pompeo and the Foreign Minister Kang of South Korea had the opportunity to
speak last evening by phone, and we continue to coordinate closely," the
statement said without elaborating on the details of the call.Earlier, South
Korea's official news agency, Yonhap, reported that Kang briefed Pompeo on
Seoul's position on North Korea's latest move and vowed to "fully
implement" the agreement between President Moon and Kim on April 27.
They agreed
that the two sides will "continue close cooperation to achieve the
complete denuclearisation and the establishment of peace on the Korean
Peninsula through the successful hosting of the North Korea-US summit on the
basis of the accomplishments in the April 27 South-North summit," South
Korea's foreign ministry said.
South Korea
has also reportedly offered to mediate between the US and North Korea, Al
Jazeera's Rob McBride, reporting from Seoul, said on Thursday.
Al Jazeera's
Adrian Brown, reporting from Beijing, said China is calling on the US "to
seize the opportunity for peace".
The news
comes as Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported on Thursday that Pompeo had demanded
that North Korea ship overseas some of its nuclear warheads, ballistic missiles
and other nuclear materials within six months.
In exchange,
the US hinted that it might remove Pyongyang from a list of state sponsors for
terrorism.
But North
Korea's decision on Wednesday to abruptly cancel a ministerial-level talks with
South Korea has put the future of the entire negotiations into question.
'Deliberate
military provocation'
Pyongyang
said its decision was in response to the 'Max Thunder' joint military exercises
between the US and South Korea, which involves some 100 military aircraft.
North Korea's
state news agency has dubbed the drills a "deliberate military
provocation". Pyongyang also warned against being pressured to abandon its
nuclear programme.
The US-South
Korea war games continued on Thursday amid North Korea's objections.
Following
Pyongyang's decision, US President Donald Trump said "we will have to
see" if his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will go
ahead.
On Wednesday,
North Korea's first vice minister of foreign affairs, Kim Kye-gwan, said:
"If the US is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear
abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue and cannot but
reconsider our proceeding to the ... summit."
North Korea
defends its nuclear and missile programmes as a necessary deterrent against
perceived aggression by the US, which keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea.
It has long
said it is open to eventually giving up its nuclear arsenal if the US withdraws
its troops from South Korea and ends its "nuclear umbrella" security
alliance with Seoul.
Kim Kye-gwan
also derided as "absurd" comments by Trump's top security adviser,
John Bolton, who suggested discussions with North Korea should be similar to
those that led to components of Libya's nuclear programme being shipped to the
US in 2004.
North Korea
clashed with Bolton when he worked under the administration of former president
George W Bush.
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