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By Kim Tae-gyu
South Korea's top national security official agreed with his U.S. counterpart to set up a hotline to discuss security issues including North Korea's nuclear programs at any time, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday.
Kim Jang-soo, chief of Cheong Wa Dae's national security office, met White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice in Washington to come up with the bilateral agreement.
They also agreed to wrap up the talks early next year on delaying the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON), which is supposed to take place on Dec. 1, 2015.
"Kim had a meeting with Rice for approximately an hour at the White House to reach the conclusion. The two will strengthen communications and cooperation by contacting each other more frequently when necessary," a Cheong Wa Dae official said.
They also reiterated the stance of Seoul and Washington that Pyongyang should take sincere measures for denuclearization, saying talks for the sake of talks will not be accepted.
In particular, Kim said that it is up to North Korea whether or not the six-party talks will be held in response to China's requests to resume the multilateral discussion that involves the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia.
The six-party talks were initially designed to find a peaceful way of tackling security concerns on the Korean Peninsula in tandem with the North's nuclear threats toward neighboring states.
The six succeeded in getting the isolated state pledge to shut down its nuclear facilities in 2007 in exchange for aid and quick normalization of its diplomatic relations with the U.S. and Japan.
But the North pulled out of the framework in 2009. Despite the international community's strong opposition, the reclusive regime also carried out its third atomic test in February this year, in the process attracting stringent United Nations Security Council sanctions.
Since then, South Korea and the U.S. have put forth concerted efforts to make the North give up its nuclear ambitions to little avail.
With regard to the OPCON transition, Kim and Rice confirmed the schedule agreed by the two country's defense ministers, who met this month to agree to make the final decision on the initiative in the first half of next year.
South Korea signed the transfer of the wartime control in 2006, more than half a century after it was handed over to the U.S. soon after the Korean War (1950-53) broke out.
Originally, the shift was planned to happen in April 2012, but the former Lee Myung-bak administration postponed it in 2010 by more than three years after the country's frigate Cheonan was sunk by an unprovoked torpedo attack.
The incumbent Park Geun-hye government called for another delay and one of the major reasons cited was North Korean nuclear threats.
Kim also met U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to discuss military and security issues of the two long-time allies.
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