[Yonhap News Photo]
SEOUL -- Denuclearization will remain the goal of any engagement with North Korea, the U.S. State Department said Sunday, as South Korea prepared to send a high-level delegation to the reclusive regime.
The five-member delegation led by President Moon Jae-in's chief national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, will visit Pyongyang Monday, the South's presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, said earlier in the day.
The delegation is expected to meet with their North Korean counterparts during a two-day stay to discuss ways to improve inter-Korean ties and create the conditions for U.S.-North Korea dialogue.
"We are in close contact with the Republic of Korea about our unified response to North Korea, including the need to maintain maximum pressure to achieve a denuclearized Korean Peninsula," a State Department official told Yonhap on background.
"The United States and Republic of Korea will work together through the maximum pressure campaign to ensure that north-south progress is accompanied by advances toward denuclearization," the official added. The maximum pressure campaign is a U.S.-led global effort to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program through greater economic and diplomatic sanctions.
"We are willing to engage North Korea to emphasize our position that the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is non-negotiable," the State Department official said. "We are not going to make the same mistakes as previous administrations."
(Yonhap)
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
