Top diplomats of the two Koreas met on the sidelines of a regional forum in Manila. South Korea's foreign ministry said that South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha had a brief meeting with her Northern counterpart Ri Yong-Ho yesterday before an ASEAN Regional Forum dinner. <br/>It said that Ms. Kang urged Mr. Ri to accept Seoul's offers of military talks to lower tensions and for discussions on a new round of reunions for divided families, however Ri refused the proposal saying it lacks sincerity because of South's collaboration with the US to mount pressure on the North Korea. The meeting came a day after the UN Security Council passed sanctions on North Korea over its first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which caused global alarm.<br/>Meanwhile US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson today said that a UN Security Council vote to impose sanctions on North Korea showed that world powers were united behind a push for a denuclearised Korean peninsula.<br/>Speaking at a security forum in Manila, Washington's senior diplomat said Kim Jong-Un's regime must halt ballistic missile tests if it wanted to talk to the United States about resolving the existing impasse.<br/>Yesterday, Tillerson held separate talks in Manila with foreign ministers Wang Yi of China and Sergei Lavrov of Russia, both of whom he said were in support of a tough stance on Pyongyang's arsenal.<br/>While Wang called for a resumption of dialogue with North Korea, Tillerson insisted Kim must first stop the missile tests.<br/>The UN Security Council on Saturday approved a US-drafted sanctions package against North Korea that could cost it 1 billion US dollar a year in an effort to halt its nuclear weapons and missile programmes. This was in response to the North Korea's conducting two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month.<br/><br/><br/><br/>
News On AIR | August 7, 2017 11:35 AM
North and South Korea foreign ministers meet on sidelines of regional forum
