File Photo: Top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un (L) shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore before the first-ever DPRK-U.S. summit, on June 12, 2018. (Xinhua/The Straits Times)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said here Thursday that the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) should have more patience and dialogue to build trust.
"It is important to have patience and to continue dialogue so that the U.S. and the DPRK can increase mutual understanding and build trust," Cho said at a forum in Washington.
Cho said that the skepticism held by some experts was reasonable given the past failures of negotiation, but "past failures offer great lessons that can lead to future success."
Cho said that South Korea, the United States, and the DPRK should abide by the agreements reached by their leaders and implement those agreements to achieve a complete denuclearization and establish a peace regime.
South Korea would continue to support the denuclearization process by communicating with both the United States and the DPRK to keep the process on the right track, he said.
Cho also reiterated that inter-Korean relations should be improved at the same pace as the denuclearization. He expected that senior-level talks between the DPRK and the United States could be rescheduled soon to make some progress on practical actions.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a visiting DPRK senior official was originally scheduled to meet last week in New York, but the meeting was postponed to an unspecified date.
The first-ever DPRK-U.S. summit was held in Singapore on June 12. According to a joint statement signed by the leaders of the two countries, the United States would provide security guarantee to the DPRK in return for Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearization.
Following the leaders' meeting, the U.S.-DPRK talks were once stuck in an impasse due to differences over the scale of denuclearization, U.S. sanctions, and whether to issue a war-ending declaration.