Summary of external news of North Korea this week

SEOUL, July 1 (Yonhap) -- The following is a summary of external news of North Korea this week.

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S. Korea to seek close cooperation with China for peaceful resolution of N.K. nuclear issue: PM

SEOUL -- South Korea will seek close cooperation with China to peacefully address threats posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Thursday.

Han made the remarks at a forum marking the 30th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between Seoul and Beijing, amid growing concerns about the possibility of Pyongyang carrying out a nuclear test.

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(Yonhap Interview) U.N. rapporteur urges more efforts to resume talks with N. Korea, calls on its leader to cooperate with U.N.

SEOUL -- The outgoing U.N. special rapporteur on North Korea's human rights situation called on South Korea and the United States not to lose an opportunity to open up a dialogue channel with the Kim Jong-un regime amid speculation it may soon conduct a nuclear test.

Tomas Ojea Quintana also urged Kim not to forget that his country is a member of the U.N. and the international community, speaking during an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul on Wednesday night at the end of what will be his last trip here in his capacity as the U.N.'s point man on Pyongyang for the human rights issue.

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(3rd LD) Yoon stresses importance of S. Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation amid N.K. threats

MADRID -- President Yoon Suk-yeol said Wednesday that trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan has become ever more important in the face of North Korea's growing nuclear threat and increased instability in the world.

Yoon made the remark at the start of a trilateral meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Madrid.

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(LEAD) U.N. rapporteur says N. Korea responsible for 2020 death of S. Korean fisheries official

SEOUL -- The outgoing U.N. special rapporteur on North Korea's human rights situation made clear Wednesday that North Korea is responsible for the killing of a South Korean fisheries official in 2020 and stressed that the bereaved family has the right to know details of how the death occurred.

"I have said that the government of North Korea is responsible for violating the right and killing this fisheries official," Tomas Ojea Quintana said in a press conference in central Seoul. "It is the responsibility of the government of North Korea to disclose information about what happened to him, to punish those who shot him in the sea and to provide reparations to the family."

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CTBTO chief urges N. Korea to renew moratorium on nuclear testing

SEOUL, June 28 (Yonhap) -- The chief of an international group campaigning for an end to all nuclear testing has called on North Korea to reinstate its related moratorium, as speculation is rampant that the secretive regime may soon carry out an underground nuclear experiment.

"While I can assure you of the readiness of our verification regime to detect any nuclear test, I wish to take this opportunity to call on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to renew the commitment it made in 2018 to suspend nuclear testing," Robert Floyd, executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), said in a statement during a meeting of its governing body in Vienna on Monday (local time).

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S. Korea's nuclear envoy meets U.S. Treasury official handling N. Korea sanctions

SEOUL -- South Korea's top nuclear envoy met Monday with a senior U.S. Treasury Department official in charge of sanctioning North Korea and supporters of its weapons of mass destruction programs.

Consultations between Kim Gunn, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs at the foreign ministry, and Brian Nelson, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, in Seoul came amid speculation that Pyongyang may soon carry out a nuclear test. Nelson heads the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers and enforces many U.S. sanctions programs.
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