U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun has visited the truce village of Panmunjeom for the first time.
According to an official at Seoul's foreign ministry, he went to see what the two Koreas have done to disarm the Joint Security Area, as agreed at their summit in September.
In the evening, Biegun attended a brief bilateral meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Lee Do-hoon. And with his visit comes an apparent gesture of goodwill, showing that the U.S. is still committed to dialogue between Washington and Pyeongyang.
Upon his arrival in Korea on Wednesday, Biegun said the U.S. will review its policy on humanitarian aid for North Korea.
On Friday, the U.S. and South Korea will hold the second meeting of their working group on North Korea.
The agenda will include denuclearization and various issues concerning inter-Korean cooperation projects.
Also on Friday, Biegun will stop by the Blue House, Presidential office and the Unification Ministry.
America's top diplomat has reaffirmed the U.S. is still working hard to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
Mike Pompeo also expressed hope that a second North Korea-U.S. summit could happen early next year.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated Washington's efforts to follow through on North Korea's commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
Pompeo also expressed hope that a second Kim-Trump summit could take place soon, saying Washington is hopeful the two leaders will "get together not too long after the first of the year and make even further progress on taking this threat away from the U.S."
However the Korean Central News Agency slammed the U.S. saying that, nowhere in their joint statement signed in Singapore in June did the two leaders commit to the "denuclearization of North Korea".
It stressed that denuclearization refers to the Korean Peninsula as a whole, which includes areas where U.S. nuclear weapons are deployed in the South.
South Korean officials are heading north of the border on this Friday to inspect roads in North Korea.
They will be checking a 100-kilometer stretch of road on the eastern coast for three days, and a four-kilometer section in the west next Monday.
Seoul says the inspections will be on-site visits without equipment and therefore, four days is enough time.
The inspections come ahead of a groundbreaking ceremony the two Koreas are planning to hold next Wednesday,
to mark connecting and modernizing their railways and roads.
The two sides finished inspecting rail lines in North Korea earlier this month.
South Korea's four biggest taxi unions staged a huge rally on Thursday in front of the National Assembly to protest the launch of a new carpool service.
Taxi drivers all across Korea went on a 24-hour strike on Thursday morning and staged a massive rally in Seoul, to protest against Kakao Mobility's move to launch a carpool, or ride-sharing service.
The move by the government and the carpool business to launch the ride sharing service has been causing a strong backlash from taxi drivers who claim their livelihoods will be threatened if the service opens.
Source: Arirang News
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