US envoy travels to Seoul to discuss N.Korea's ICBM launches
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The Department of State has said that a top US official dealing with North Korean issues is traveling to Seoul to hold talks on Pyongyang's latest intercontinental ballistic missile tests.
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US envoy travels to Seoul to discuss North Korea's ICBM launches
The Biden administration has sent to Seoul its top official dealing with North Korean issues to hold talks on Pyongyang's latest intercontinental ballistic missile tests, the Department of State said on Thursday.
According to the press release, "US Special Representative for the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] Ambassador Sung Kim will travel to Seoul from April 18-22."
"Kim will meet with [South] Korean Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Noh Kyu-duk and other senior officials to discuss ... the international community’s response to the DPRK’s recent ICBM launches," the press release added.
Kim will discuss other issues on the peninsula with other senior South Korean officials, accompanied by Deputy Special Representative for the DPRK Jung Pak, the State Department said.
The United States and South Korea are still committed to ongoing close collaboration on North Korean issues as they look for advancing complete denuclearization and permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, according to the press release.
This comes after North Korean news agency Yonhap quoted on Monday sources as saying that US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln will access the international waters of the East Sea this week as a "show of force" movement to fend off any possible North Korean provocations.
The aircraft carrier along with a strike group will stay in the sea for about five days, Yonhap reported, adding that it will be the first incident of its kind since November 2017.
The news agency quoted the spokesman for US Forces Korea, Lee Peters, as saying that "as a matter of operational security," he refuses to comment on the matter.
According to the news agency, the decision to send the carrier came as a result of fears of new missile launches by North Korea in anticipation of Friday's 110th birth anniversary of its late founding leader Kim Il-sung and April 25's founding anniversary of the North Korean People's Revolutionary Army.
