Philippine capital hosts high-level talks on North Korea

Foreign ministers of North and South Korea have briefly met on the sidelines of a regional summit in the Philippines amid international pressure on Pyongyang to stop its nuclear and missile programs.

The South’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha shook hands with her Northern counterpart, Ri Yong-ho, ahead of an ASEAN Regional Forum dinner in Manila on Sunday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Monday.

According to the report, Kang urged Ri to accept Seoul’s offer of talks aimed at lowering tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula.

Ri, however, said Seoul’s proposal to improve ties with the North “lacked sincerity,” the report added.

“Given the current situation in which the South collaborates with the US to heap pressure on the North, such proposals lacked sincerity,” an unnamed official quoted Ri as saying.

Seoul put forward the initiative for talks with Pyongyang last month, but the North kept silent on the offer.

Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who also met with Ri in Manila on Sunday, reiterated the need to resolve the Korean crisis through diplomacy, saying his country supports initiatives put forward by South Korea to resolve the issue.

Wang said his North Korean opposite number had “not entirely rejected the positive proposals raised by the South.”

“For China as a neighbor of both North Korea and South Korea, we of course hope the North and South can improve relations. We also support the positive initiatives put forward by the new South Korean government. We are ready to see the North and South resume contact soon," Wang said.

The Manila meetings came a day after the UN Security Council passed a resolution slapping sweeping sanctions on the North over its first test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which sparked global condemnations.