South Korea says US-North Korea talks possible, rules out Hormuz deployment

South Korea volition proceed efforts to facilitate talks betwixt Washington and Pyongyang.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said connected Friday that United States President Donald Trump wants dialog with Pyongyang and confirmed Seoul volition not beryllium deploying troops to intervene militarily successful the Iran war.

“Trump intelligibly ⁠wants dialog ⁠with North ⁠Korea,” Lee said connected Friday.

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He added that portion specified talks are uncertain, they are not impossible.

South Korea was continuing “preliminary coordination efforts” to facilitate dialog betwixt North Korea and the US.

“The resumption of North Korea-US dialog would beryllium acold easier than resuming inter-Korean dialogue,” helium said, according to South Korean quality bureau Yonhap.

Trump, seeking to revive the enslaved helium claims to person forged with North Korean person Kim Jong Un successful his archetypal term, said helium plans to conscionable Kim aboriginal this year.

The US president said it was important to “get along” with Kim, adding that Pyongyang present had 57 “very powerful” atomic weapons.

Seoul has assessed that Pyongyang has astir 80-120 atomic warheads.

North Korea, which has secured captious backing from Russia successful caller years, did not intelligibly respond to Trump.

Inter-Korean relations reached a precocious successful 2018 but deteriorated aft talks betwixt Kim and Trump collapsed successful February 2019.

On Thursday, a tribunal successful Seoul ordered North Korea to wage astir $32.5m for blowing up the Inter-Korean Liaison Office gathering successful 2020. The bureau was intended to amended relations connected the peninsula but was destroyed amid rising tensions betwixt the neighbours.

South Korea is moving to fortify relations with different determination partners. The first-ever statesmanlike summit betwixt Seoul and 5 Central Asian states was held connected Wednesday, aiming to found deeper economical engagement with the Russian-allied countries.

South Korea volition not dispatch troops

Despite increasing pressure from the US, Lee reiterated 3 times that South Korea volition not deploy troops to the Strait of Hormuz.

“Let it beryllium clear. There volition beryllium nary dispatch of troops that volition pb to engagement successful a conflict. There volition beryllium nary engagement oregon engagement successful war,” Lee said.

The South Korean authorities recovered itself astatine likelihood with ample parts of Korean nine arsenic protests broke retired successful caller weeks opposing a imaginable deployment of South Korean subject assets to the Strait of Hormuz.

Lee added that South Korea volition “carry retired the minimum indispensable activities” to support its ain merchant ships and lipid shipping routes.