1. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se held a telephone conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry on January 24. With regard to ways to respond to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test, the two top diplomats discussed specific ways for the UN Security Council to impose very strong and comprehensive sanctions on North Korea to make the country pay a price commensurate to its action, as agreed between the Presidents of the Republic of Korea and the United States over the phone on January 7.

2. Minister Yun stated that in addition to sanctions under a UN Security Council resolution, bilateral sanctions and united measures from the international community to pressure North Korea should be implemented in a mutually complementary way in order to make North Korea change its way of conducting strategic calculations. Secretary Kerry expressed support for the Minister’s suggestion.

3. The Minister and the Secretary agreed to jointly seek and take various creative ways to coordinate, including holding talks among five member countries of the Six-Party Talks, while continuing close five-party collaboration within the framework of the Six-Party Talks.

4. The two top diplomats agreed to hold another telephone conference on the heels of Secretary Kerry’s visit to China on January 27-28 to share with each other the outcome and an assessment of the visit. In addition, they agreed to continue close strategic communication and coordination at the ROK-US foreign ministers’ meeting as well as with other relevant countries on the sidelines of a variety of diplomatic and security events, including the Munich Security Conference from February 12 to 14.

5. Since North Korea’s fourth nuclear test on January 6, starting with the telephone conversation between the Presidents of the ROK and the US on January 7, the ROK and the US have continued close strategic consultations and coordination at various levels, including between the foreign ministers, vice foreign ministers and the head delegates to the Six-Party Talks of the two countries. The telephone conference between the Foreign Minister and the Secretary marked the second of its kind after the first on January 7 since North Korea’s fourth nuclear test.


* unofficial translation