South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and his US counterpart Hillary Clinton pledged to make joint efforts to revive suspended six-party talks, South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Tuesday.
The two officials made the commitment during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 64th United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday.
The two stressed the importance of closer cooperation among five partners involved in the international nuclear disarmament forum -- the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia -- to resume the stalled multilateral negotiations aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.
Yu told reporters after the meeting that the five partners "are discussing the 'grand bargain'" on the DPRK proposed by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
The two sides also reiterated that their governments will continue to implement the international sanctions imposed by the United Nations (UN) on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( DPRK) after it tested long-range rockets in April and a nuclear bomb in May, while keeping the door open to Pyongyang for dialogue, the ministry said.
(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2009)