Seoul Appeals for Early Resumption of Pyongyang-Washington TalksPresident Kim Dae-jung stressed Saturday that early resumption of Pyongyang-Washington talks is crucial to peace and stability in Northeast Asia.During meeting with U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, Kim said Inter-Korean and Pyongyang-Washington relations should move forward simultaneously, according to a press release of South Korean Presidential Office. He stressed that both Seoul and Washington should more closely cooperate in dealing with Pyongyang, hoping that the United States could provide supra-partisan support for his sunshine policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). He also reemphasized the importance of the South Korean-U.S. alliance and the need to maintain U.S. troops in his country even after unification of Korean peninsula. At the meeting, Biden expressed strong support for the sunshine policy and hoped that a channel of dialogue could be restored between Seoul, Pyongyang and Washington soon. The Washington-Pyongyang talks was suspended due to a hard-line policy towards Pyongyang by U.S. President George W. Bush. In a joint declaration issued after the DPRK-Russia summit in Moscow last week, Pyongyang renewed that the United States should pull its troops out of South Korea. |
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