"Republic of Korea (ROK), China and the United States are assuming an important role," ROK's Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said at a Seoul forum attended by Washington's ambassador to Seoul Harry Harris and other dignitaries on Thursday when talking about the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
Cho said the security conditions are rapidly changing and stand at a very crucial juncture, adding that the three countries are major negotiating nations, the most responsible for regional security, and ROK is directly involved in related issues.
"In that regard, (they) should strengthen trilateral cooperation and play different but well-coordinated roles respectively," he stressed. "(They) will have to achieve complete denuclearization by moving independently at times and together sometimes."
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would hold his second meeting with Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi on February 27 and 28. That follows an unprecedented summit of the two leaders in Singapore last June.
Stephen Biegun, U.S. special representative for the DPRK, said that talks in Pyongyang with the DPRK side were productive after his three days' visit in the DPRK at the beginning of February.
ROK's President Moon Jae-in echoed that the second summit will be a critical turning point for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Baik Tae-hyun, the spokesperson of the Unification Ministry of the ROK, also showed the expectation of concrete progress to pave the way for greater inter-Korean exchanges during the upcoming 2nd Trump-Kim summit.
"China supports and hopes that the second summit will be successfully held and will achieve positive results and make due contributions to the realization of lasting peace on the peninsula," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying commented during a regular press conference on Monday.
