MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd March, 2019) South Korean Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Lee Do-hoon is planning to hold a meeting with his US counterpart, Stephen Biegun, next week to discuss further steps toward Pyongyang after a fruitless summit between the US and North Korean leaders in Hanoi, the Yonhap news Agency reported on Sunday, citing a diplomatic source.
Lee is expected to travel to Washington to meet Biegun but the exact date of the talks is yet to be scheduled, the agency reported.�
The source noted, however, that the South Korean special representative intended to head for Washington on March 5.
"He [Lee] plans to depart for the U.S. as early as Tuesday [March 5] to have talks with Special Representative Biegun the following day," the source was quoted as saying by the agency.
The South Korean diplomat wanted to talk to his US counterpart right after the summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in Vietnam earlier this week, but Biegun had to leave for the Philippines with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to the agency.
The long-anticipated second Trump-Kim summit was held in the Vietnamese capital on Wednesday and Thursday. The meeting, however, failed to produce an accord, unlike the previous meeting between the two heads of state in Singapore last June.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, just two days after the end of the summit, Seoul and Washington announced that the two countries had decided to conclude their Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint exercises. US-South Korean joint drills have long been a source of major concern for Pyongyang.
