Now to a possible breakthrough in the deadlock over resuming denuclearization talks with North Korea.
South Korea and the United States have signaled that they are ready to hold a preliminary round of unconditional discussions with North Korea... with an eye to resuming the long-stalled six-party talks.
Kim Hyun-bin reports.

South Korea's top nuclear envoy says there are no preconditions to resuming talks with North Korea on its nuclear program,... in order to test the regime's commitment before resuming formal six-party negotiations.
Hwang Joon-kook made the remarks after wrapping up talks with his U.S. counterpart Sung Kim in Washington on Tuesday.


"These talks would be aimed at judging Pyongyang's real intentions and finding out whether it will make a sincere commitment to denuclearize."

When asked whether the proposal had been conveyed to North Korea, Hwang said they had not received a direct response from Pyongyang.
He did mention, however,... that the North had responded in an indirect manner through its state media, which so far, has been less than receptive to the idea.
China has been pushing the idea of holding unconditional exploratory talks with North Korea for the past few years.
Beijing thinks it could be a stepping stone to resuming the long-stalled six party talks on denuclearizing North Korea.
Those talks,... not held since late 2008,... involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
The exploratory talks meet both Pyongyang's demand for an unconditional resumption of talks and Washington's insistence for talks to resume only after North Korea takes concrete measures to denuclearize.
Looking to coordinate their approach,.. the South Korean envoy will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, in Beijing on Wednesday.
Kim Hyun-bin, Arirang News.