US nuclear envoy arrives in S Korea for denuclearisation talks

United States Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun arrived in Seoul on Sunday to hold talks with South Korea on cooperation over North Korea's dismantling of the nuclear weapons programme.

Biegun was accompanied by a delegation of high-level officials comprising Allison Hooker, a National Security Council official specialising in Korean affairs, and Kevin Kim, a senior advisor at the US Department of State.

On October 29, the American nuclear envoy is scheduled to meet South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and his counterpart Lee Do-hoon separately over various issues, including Washington's push for high-level and working-level talks on denuclearisation with North Korean officials, Yonhap News Agency reported.

According to observers, Biegun's visit to South Korea could further intensify US' approach to pursuing North Korea's final and fully verified denuclearisation that is expected to gain momentum after the US' midterm elections scheduled on November 6.

After completing his engagements, Beigun is slated to depart for Washington on October 30.

While North Korea, on the one hand, repeatedly asserted that it has taken various steps to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for a possible sanctions relief, the US, on the other hand, has reiterated that it will not lift the sanctions unless North Korea achieved "complete and fully verifiable denuclearisation".

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met for the first time in Singapore in June, wherein the two leaders had agreed to jointly work towards the dismantling of the nuclear programme.

However, there has been a lack of clarity from Pyongyang's side over its progress, raising questions about the communist country's commitment to achieving complete denuclearisation in the Korean Peninsula.

Meanwhile, the two Koreas and the US-led United Nations Command wrapped up their two-day work to verify the disarmament of the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the Demilitarised Zone, South Korea's defence ministry said.