South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on Friday said the "peace process has advanced" even though the second summit between the US and North Korea in Vietnam ended without an agreement.
"The peace process has advanced although the second summit between the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump ended with no agreement in late February in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi," Xinhua quoted Kang as saying during a presser here.
"We remain optimistic that at some point, they'll return to the dialogue," she added, referring to Kim's earlier statement, wherein he showed interest for a third summit with the United States, provided Washington offers a "fair" and "mutually acceptable" deal.
Held in the last week of February in Vietnam, the second US-North Korea summit broke down without an agreement after the two sides failed to resolve their differences on sanctions waivers.
While Pyongyang has sought sanction relief for the steps it has taken towards denuclearisation, the United States has stood firm on its decision to provide sanction waivers only when complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula is achieved.
The South Korean Foreign Minister also lauded China's "constructive help" for the peace process, adding that both Seoul and Beijing are on the same page for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.
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She added that South Korea is making every effort to aid in the resumption of negotiations between the USA and North Korea. Kang also highlighted that the US special representative for North Korean affairs, Stephen Biegun, was due in Seoul next week.
Speaking on inter-Korean relations, she said that regular exchanges are taking place through various channels like the joint inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong.
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