CAN WE TALK?

South Korea Wants to Renew Dialogue With North Korea

After North boasted of testing missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

South Korea says it wants to renew communications with the North in a bid to get the Pyongyang regime to rein in its missile program. The news comes as newly elected South Korean President Moon Jae-in urges dialogue in addition to sanctions against North Korea for its series of missile and nuclear tests. “Our most basic stance is that communication lines between South and North Korea should open,” said Lee Duk-haeng, a spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry. Communications between the two countries were halted by Pyongyang last year after the North was hit with new United Nations economic sanctions. While the South says it is ready to talk, U.S. and Japanese officials have said any dialogue won’t be effective unless North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives a sign of good faith and halts the country’s nuclear program first. After its latest missile launch on Sunday, North Korea boasted that the missile used was capable of carrying a “large-size nuclear warhead,” a remark that triggered alarm among members of the United Nations Security Council.