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S. Korea's new top nuclear envoy holds phones talks with Japanese counterpart
SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's new chief nuclear envoy, Noh Kyu-duk, spoke by phone with his Japanese counterpart on Wednesday in their first talks since his appointment earlier this week, the foreign ministry said.
His talks with Takehiro Funakoshi, the new director-general for Asian and Oceanian affairs at Tokyo's foreign ministry, came as Seoul seeks closer cooperation with the incoming U.S. administration of Joe Biden and Japan to resume nuclear diplomacy with North Korea.
"The two sides shared assessments on the Korean Peninsula situation and exchanged views on ways for cooperation between South Korea and Japan and among the two countries and the United States to make progress in the efforts for the complete denuclearization of the peninsula and entrenching permanent peace," the ministry said in a press release.