With a series of diplomatic events lined up over the next few weeks, South Korea and the U.S. are continuing to closely coordinate on North Korea's denuclearization.
Nuclear envoys of the two countries met on Monday for the second time in a week.
Amid the longer-than-expected silence over North Korea-U.S. working-level and senior-level talks,... Stephen Beigun's visit to Seoul is hoped to provide a much-needed breakthrough.
Lee Ji-won reports.

It's only been a week since South Korea's nuclear envoy was in Washington.
But his counterpart, U.S. Special Representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, came to Seoul on Sunday for another round of face-to-face meetings.

Biegun and Lee Do-hoon, Seoul's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, met for the 12th time Monday morning to discuss the latest developments in the denuclearization talks.

"We have a shared goal here, which is to bring an end to 70 years of war and hostility on the Korean Peninsula. And the primary requirement for us to get to that end point is to achieve the final, fully, verified denucleariztion of North Korea. And so I am absolutely confident that this is within reach. And we're looking forward very much to beginning working level negotiations with North Korea as soon as possible."

The two are expected to have discussed the progress made so far on the high-level and working-level talks announced by Pyeongyang and Washington.
And with the U.S. midterm elections coming up next week, it's also expected they talked about how Washington will approach negotiations with the North post-election,... as well as an analysis of the latest moves by Pyeongyang, such as its vice foreign minister's visit to Russia.

They are also likely to have touched on how sanctions fit into inter-Korean cooperation plans like building railroad connections and forestation -- areas where those plans violate international sanctions... and where there need to be exemptions.

Prior to the meeting, Lee told reporters that Biegun himself suggested that he come to Seoul and that they still have a lot they couldn't get to during their encounter last week.
Biegun's sudden visit prompted speculation that something big could be imminent, or that he might hold working-level talks with his North Korean counterpart.
But a senior South Korean official denied those possibilities.

After Biegun met with South Korea's foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha in the morning and sat down for an hour with his own counterpart, he met with the Presidential Chief of Staff, Im Jong-seok, an uncommon request by the U.S..

Biegun is also expected to meet with Seoul's Unification Minister Cho Myung-gyon on Tuesday before taking off on Wednesday.
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.