U.S., S. Korea to strengthen coordination with China to bring DPRK back to six-party talks

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 -- The United States and South Korea will strengthen coordination with China to bring the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the six-party talks at an early date, a joint statement said on Friday.

"We will continue to strengthen our coordination with China and the other parties in order to bring North Korea (DPRK) ... back to credible and meaningful talks as soon as possible," said the S. Korea-U.S. joint statement released after a meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

It is the first time that South Korea and the United States have adopted a joint statement on DPRK, the S. Korean state news agency Yonhap reported.

At the press conference, Obama expressed willingness to see a strong relationship between South Korea and China as well as to cooperate with China on the Korean Peninsula issues.

"We want South Korea to have a strong relationship with China, just as we want to have a strong relationship with China," Obama said. "We want to see China's peaceful rise."

Park said the recent bilateral meetings between Korea and China, the U.S. and China, and Korea and the U.S. have served to build consensus on the DPRK and its nuclear program.

"We believe that this will play a positive role in ensuring peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and throughout Northeast Asia," she said.

In the joint statement released by Yonhap, the two reaffirmed commitment to "achieve the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea in a peaceful manner."

The United States and South Korea have "no hostile policy" toward the DPRK, and remain open to dialogue with Pyongyang, the statement said, while warning that "further significant measures by the UN Security Council" could follow if the DPRK "carries out a launch using ballistic missile technology or a nuclear test."

During a recent visit to the DPRK, Liu Yunshan, a senior official of Communist Party of China, said China is willing to work with the DPRK to strive for early resumption of the six-party talks on the nuclear issue.

China is willing to work with the DPRK on various issues and to play a constructive role in safeguarding regional peace and stability, Liu said.

Launched in 2003, the six-party talks mechanism, which involves China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the United States and the DPRK, aims to negotiate a viable solution to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue. It is suspended in December 2008.