한미 워킹그룹 20일 출범…이도훈-비건, 비핵화•남북협력 협의

Seoul's top nuke envoy is in Washington to meet his American counterpart.
The two sides are to launch a working-group to improve coordination in efforts to deal with Pyeongyang.
All this comes amid stalled denuclearization talks between North Korea and the U.S. and reports of the regime's continued missile development.
Lee Ji-won tells us more.
South Korea's foreign affairs ministry has announced that the new working group between South Korea and the U.S. will be launched in Washington on Tuesday afternoon, local time.
"After Special representative Lee Do-hoon held a meeting with Stephen Biegun on Monday, Seoul and Washington agreed to hold the first meeting of their new working group on Tuesday.
This comes about a month after the U.S. State Department announced the formation of a new Seoul-Washington working group, headed by South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, Lee Do-hoon, and U.S. Special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun.
The new group aims to further tighten the allies' cooperation and increase discussion on diplomacy, denuclearization efforts, the implementation of UN sanctions and ways in which the two Koreas can work together within the framework of such sanctions.
A senior South Korean official at the ministry told reporters on Tuesday that officials from Seoul's National Security Office and the Unification Ministry are to join Lee in the first meeting, but he added that members of the group will constantly change, depending on the agenda.
On the agenda for the first meeting, the official said the inter-Korean project to link and modernize railways and roads of South and North Korea will be discussed.
The two Koreas initially planned to hold a ground-breaking ceremony late this month or early next month,... after together checking the eastern and western railways and roads.
But the work hasn't started yet, allegedly due to differing views from the U.S.
Developments on the high-level talks between Pyeongyang and Washington that were postponed earlier in the month will also be discussed on Tuesday.
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.