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| ▲ Foreign Minister Cho Hyun speaks during bilateral talks with his Indonesian counterpart at the foreign ministry in Seoul on Aug. 21, 2025. (Yonhap) |
FM-NK leader
FM Cho notes 'close attention' to be paid to N.K. leader's planned China visit
By Kim Seung-yeon
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Yonhap) -- Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's planned attendance at the upcoming military parade in China warrants close attention, vowing continued efforts to bring Pyongyang back to dialogue.
Cho made the remark during an interview with Yonhap News TV, hours after the North announced that Kim will travel to Beijing to attend the Sept. 3 celebration marking the end of World War II, known as Victory Day in China.
Kim's planned attendance is significant as it will mark the first time the North Korean leader will join other world leaders on a multilateral stage, fueling speculation of a three-way summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"North Korea also has incentives, or reasons to come out to the international community, and especially since U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed his willingness to hold talks (with Kim), it appears likely that North Korea will eventually agree to dialogue with the United States," Cho said.
"In this sense, the announcement on Kim attending China's Victory Day should closely be watched," he said.
Cho said the government will closely work with relevant countries, including China, to bring Pyongyang back to the dialogue table, with the ultimate goal of denuclearizing the North.
"(Denuclearization) is not easy," he said. "But it's our crucial diplomatic objective to create a situation where North Korea would not need to keep its status quo of possessing nuclear (weapons)," Cho said.
Asked about the progress in talks with Washington on the bilateral nuclear energy pact, Cho called it "very meaningful" that Seoul and Washington agreed at this week's summit between President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump to explore ways to revise the pact.
"We feel the need to be able to reprocess (spent nuclear fuel) or enrich (uranium) so that we can produce fuel for nuclear power plants on our own," he said. "To achieve that, we need to revise the agreement or pursue other ways in coordination with the U.S., which makes this agreement to discuss in that direction particularly meaningful."
South Korea and the U.S. revised their 1974 nuclear energy pact, known as the "123 Agreement" in 2015 to accommodate Seoul's request for the right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and enrich uranium for peaceful use.
The revised pact permits very limited spent fuel reprocessing and enrichment of uranium to below 20 percent with U.S. consent, effectively barring South Korea from producing its own nuclear fuel for civilian energy supply purposes.
U.S. concerns over nuclear proliferation have affected the terms of the agreement.
The 2015 revision opened the way for the allies to conduct joint research on the "pyroprocessing" technology for spent nuclear fuel for recycling, considered posing fewer proliferation risks, but questions have remained over its economic feasibility.
"We should approach this from an industrial and environmental point of view. The U.S. will never accept (it) if we keep talking about going nuclear on our own or that we should have potential nuclear capabilities through the revision," Cho said.
"We will explain this well (to the U.S.), and I believe discussions will move in that direction," he added.
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