US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Wednesday arrived in South Korea for talks with officials in Seoul as part of the preparation for the upcoming US-South Korean high-level summit, media reported
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th May, 2021) US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Wednesday arrived in South Korea for talks with officials in Seoul as part of the preparation for the upcoming US-South Korean high-level summit, media reported.
According to the Yonhap news agency, Haines' visit to Seoul comes after her trilateral talks with the South Korean and Japanese counterparts - Park Jie-won and Hiroaki Takizawa - devoted to ensuring a coordinated approach to North Korea's denuclearization.
During the visit to Seoul, Haines, who supervises 18 US spy and law enforcement agencies, could visit the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas and meet with President Moon Jae-in and his top security adviser, Suh Hoon, the publication said.
Preparations for the upcoming summit between Moon and US President Joe Biden, scheduled to take place in Washington on May 21, will top the agenda of the US intelligence chief's talks with the officials in Seoul, according to the media outlet.
In April, the White House said it had concluded a months-long review of its policy toward North Korea. At the same time, the US said that it will continue to engage in negotiations with Pyongyang with the aim to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and will not look for a "grand bargain."
The dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang has stalled since the failed February 2019 summit in Hanoi, during which the United States demanded more decisive steps from North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and Pyongyang accused Washington of not responding to the steps already taken. The 2019 October talks in Sweden failed to break the deadlock.
The inter-Korean dialogue is also at a low point following North Korea's decision to cut all lines of communication with Seoul last June.
