Unification minister vows efforts to bring N. Korea back to dialogue with ‘patience’

SEOUL: Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said Friday the government will make efforts with "patience" to create conditions to bring North Korea back to the dialogue table, while bolstering trilateral cooperation with the United States and Japan against Pyongyang's military threats. Kim made the remark during an annual peace forum, organized by Yonhap News Agency and co-hosted by the unification ministry, to discuss ways to bolster trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan amid deepening security challenges. "After defining inter-Korean ties as those between two states hostile to each other, North Korea has continued to take an anti-unification and anti-democracy stance, while staging an irrational provocative act of sending trash-carrying balloons to the South," the minister said. Kim said last week's summit talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin have, in particular, threatened peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and beyond. "Based on the strong alliance between South Korea and the U.S., the government will bolster trilateral security cooperation and work with the international community to response to North Korea's threats," he said. "We will also continue to make efforts with patience to create conditions to prod North Korea to come back to the dialogue table." Source: Yonhap News Agency