SEOUL, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Working-level talks between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States seemed about to resume soon, a senior official of the South Korean presidential Blue House said on Thursday.
Kim Hyun-chong, a deputy director of the National Security Office (NSO) of the Blue House, made the remark after a meeting with Stephen Biegun, U.S. special representative for DPRK affairs who arrived here from Japan Tuesday evening for a three-day visit, according to local media reports.
Kim told reporters that he got an "impression" from his talks with Biegun that the DPRK-U.S. dialogue would "likely unfold soon," declining to comment on why he got the impression.
He said Seoul and Washington had been closely cooperating in negotiations for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Kim's comment came a day after Biegun told reporters that the United States was ready to engage in the working-level talks with the DPRK, which were agreed to by top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump during their impromptu meeting at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom in late June.
During the meeting with Kim, Biegun mentioned the importance of the trilateral security cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Japan as Seoul was mulling whether to drop its military intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo in protest against Japan's removal of South Korea from its whitelist of trusted export partners.
Kim told Biegun that South Korea would make a judgment serving national interests, local media reported.
To share military intelligence on the DPRK's missile and nuclear programs, South Korea and Japan signed the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) in November 2016 despite strong opposition from the South Korean people.
Many South Koreans saw the deal with Japan as unacceptable because the Japanese leadership had yet to sincerely apologize for its militaristic past. The Korean Peninsula was colonized by Imperial Japan between 1910 and 1945.
The GSOMIA had been automatically renewed each year in August. If either party wants to scrap the pact, the party will be required to notify the other of its intention 90 days ahead. This year's notification deadline falls on Aug. 24.
