South Korea security chief to visit US

A North Korean missile is displayed during a military parade in Pyongyang. (File photo)

A senior security advisor to the South Korean president will travel to the United States next week for talks about North Korea™s nuclear program and bilateral security issues.

According to a report by the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper published on Friday, Kim Jang-soo, the chief of the South Korean presidential national security office, plans to meet White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice and other US foreign affairs and security officials.

The visit comes after a three-nation naval drill involving warships from the United States, South Korea and Japan on the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula.

The two-day joint military exercise, which started on October 10, drew Pyongyang™s ire. North Korea on October 11 threatened to œbury in the sea” an American aircraft carrier that participated in the military exercise.

On October 12, North Korea™s National Defense Commission (NDC), chaired by leader Kim Jong-un, said in a statement that Washington must remove its policy of hostility against Pyongyang if it seeks peace on both the Korean Peninsula and the œUS mainland.”

œThe denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is an inalterable policy goal of the DPRK (the Democratic People™s Republic of Korea) government,” the statement said, adding that Washington should also totally remove its nuclear threats against Pyongyang.

Washington must stop the œconstant nuclear blackmails” and lift sanctions against North Korea, according to the statement.

In 2009, six-party talks involving North Korea, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States stalled when Pyongyang walked out in protest against a new round of UN sanctions over its nuclear test.

The negotiations are aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea says it is developing a nuclear arsenal in an effort to protect itself from the US military, which occasionally deploys nuclear-powered warships and aircraft able to carry atomic bombs.

MR/HSN

Copyright: Press TV