The top nuclear envoys of South Korea and the United States have held bilateral talks in Thailand to discuss North Korea's recent missile launches and joint efforts to resume nuclear talks with the regime, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday.

Lee Do-hoon and his US counterpart, Stephen Biegun, met Wednesday in Bangkok on the sidelines of a series of multilateral meetings involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"The two sides exchanged their analysis on recent and current situations, including one related to the North's July 31 launches of short-range ballistic missiles, and their views on how to respond to them," the ministry said in a press release.


(Yonhap)
"Both sides shared the understanding that the early resumption of working-level talks is more important than anything in this current situation and agreed to make diplomatic efforts to that end," it added.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported in English on Thursday that its leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a test-firing of "newly-developed large-caliber multiple launch guided rocket system" the previous day. The launches came after the regime fired off two short-range ballistic missiles from its east coast last Thursday. (Yonhap)