South Korea Claims To Be Ready To Negotiate With North Korea

JAKARTA - South Korea's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Joonkook Hwang, said his country was open to dialogue with North Korea as South Korea "firmly" responded to North Korea's provocation.

Hwang said North Korea recently carried out some major provocations, including long-range ballistic missile tests.

Hwang also mentioned the "strange" balloons containing "garbage" that were sent to his country.

"We responded firmly to North Korea's provocation, including at the Security Council meeting we attended last week," he said, quoted by ANTARA from Anadolu, Monday, June 4.

South Korea, according to Hwang, is ready to hold a Council meeting to respond to provocations made by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea's official name.

Given that North Korea calls South Korea a "foreign enemy," Hwang said the situation in North Korea was getting worse, but there was no change in the dynamics of the UN Security Council.

North Korea's nuclear policies and rhetoric are called Hwang to be more aggressive and dangerous. For that, according to him, South Korea is ready to respond to the rhetoric.

The South Korean envoy also said his country's stance had not changed, adding that South Korea was "open to dialogue and negotiations and diplomacy without any preconditions."

Responding to the delivery of balloons containing "garbage" by North Korea, South Korea announced plans to suspend the Inter-Korean Agreement, which was signed in 2018 to quell military tensions, on their part.

South Korea took over the presidency at the UN Security Council from Mozambique.

Russia is expected to take over the presidency in UN DK the following month.