South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) says Seoul will simultaneously seek to provide a security guarantee for North Korea and make the North abandon its nuclear weapons program when the two Koreas hold a summit in late April.
The spy agency made the disclosure on Monday during a briefing to lawmakers ahead of high-level talks later this week between South and North Korean officials in preparation for the summit.
“We are not to hold talks on the premise of the security guarantee for the North’s regime,” the spy agency was quoted by Yonhap as saying by legislators on the parliamentary intelligence committee. “There will be simultaneous pursuit of giving the North what it wants and making it abandon nuclear weapons.”
The NIS told lawmakers that North Korea has a firm resolve for dialogue and a willingness for denuclearization.
“North Korea hopes to be recognized as a real, normal state,” a lawmaker said, citing the NIS briefing.