(LEAD) S. Korean minister optimistic about N. Korea-U.S. talks on nuclear program
(ATTN: ADDS French foreign ministry's statement in last 2 paras; AMENDS dateline)
SEOUL/PARIS, Sept. 22 (Yonhap) --- South Korea's unification minister on Saturday expressed hope that North Korea and the United States could make progress in their stalled talks on the North's nuclear weapons program, after this week's inter-Korean summit produced pledges by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to dismantle Pyongyang's key missile test site.
President Moon Jae-in and Kim held the summit in Pyongyang earlier this week, their third meeting this year, during which Kim also pledged to permanently close the North's only known nuclear complex if the U.S. were to take unspecified corresponding steps.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim signed an agreement on the North's denuclearization during their summit in June in Singapore, but little progress has been made so far. Trump canceled U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's planned trip to North Korea last month.
Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, who is in charge of handling relations with North Korea, told an event in Seoul that the agreement made by this week's inter-Korean summit would "unravel clues" for the North Korea-U.S. negotiations.
"The United States and the international community welcome this agreement. I expect (the agreement) to unravel clues for the North Korea-U.S. dialogue that has faltered," Cho said.
This week's inter-Korean agreement is also expected to speed up the process for the denuclearization of and a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, Cho said.
Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News on Friday that the U.S. has been preparing for a second summit between Trump and Kim, but "there's still a little bit of work to do to make sure that the conditions are right."
France's foreign ministry welcomed the outcome of this week's inter-Korean summit
"France hopes that this new inter-Korean summit will make it possible to make progress toward achieving the goal of sustainable peace in the Korean Peninsula as well as toward the complete, irreversible and verifiable denuclearization of North Korea, in accordance with the U.N. Security Council resolutions," the French ministry said in a statement released on Friday.
(END)
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