S. Korean Foreign Minister to visit US next week to discuss North Korea issues

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha will visit the United States to meet State Secretary Rex Tillerson, the minister said Saturday.
   
In a meeting with Korean reporters in Hanoi, where she is on a three-day visit, Kang said she will meet her US counterpart to learn more details about Korean envoys' visit to Washington earlier this week to extend an invitation by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to US President Donald Trump.
   
"Willingness for dialogue has been confirmed on both sides. Now it falls on working-level officials to set the agenda for the summit," she said, adding that a close consultation between interested parties was very important. 
   
"Working-level officials should take good care of and be well-prepared for the summit," Kang said.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wah on Saturday told reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam that she will visit the US to meet State Secretary Rex Tillerson. (Yonhap)

For a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, "the US and North Korea should sit face to face," and Seoul is committed to making all-out efforts to make real progress towards denuclearization, she said.
   
She emphasized, however, that Seoul would work within the boundary of what the international society had agreed upon to exert pressure on Pyongyang with economic sanctions.
   
The minister also remained cautious about pinning hopes too high for the inter-Korean summit as well as the summit between Pyongyang and Washington.
  
"Both South Korea and the US have a strong will not to repeat the same mistakes of the past ... We will devise a strong strategy after thoroughly analyzing past experiences and lessons," she said. (Yonhap)