U.S.WITH SOUTH KOREA INSIST SOUTH KOREA DRILLS MUST TO GO ON

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shakes hands with Chung Eui-yong who is leading a special delegation of South Korea’s President, in this photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 6, 2018.

U.S. — SOUTH KOREA DRILLS TO GO ON

North Korea has boasted of developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the United States, in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, but Pyongyang and Washington both say they want a diplomatic solution to the standoff.

The first inter-Korean talks in more than two years were held early this year to bring North Koreato the Winter Olympics, when South Korea and the United States also postponed an annual joint large-scale military exercise that North Korea views as a preparation for invasion.

During this week’s visit, a senior Blue House official said North Korea was informed it was not feasible to postpone the joint military drills between South Korea and the United States again and that Kim Jong Un acknowledged the situation.

Kim Jong Un said he also understood the drills, expected in April, would be of a similar scale seen in previous years, the official said.

The South’s delegation leader, Chung, said he would travel to the United States to explain the outcome of the visit to North Korea and that he had a message from North Korea he will deliver to Trump.

Chung will later visit China and Russia, while Suh Hoon, the head of South Korea’s spy agency and another member of the delegation, will head to Japan.

Both North Korea and the United States have said before they are open to talks but the U.S. position has been that dialog must be aimed at North Korea’s denuclearisation, something Pyongyang has rejected.

Moon has also remained vigilant against North Korea’s weapons ambitions, saying on Tuesday South Korea should bolster its defenses in tandem with talks with Pyongyang.

The Pentagon has nevertheless said it was “cautiously optimistic” about the North-South talks, which resumed in January for the first time in two years.

(Reporting by Christine Kim Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin in SEOUL, David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON Editing by Nick Macfie)