In response to North Korea, the United States began to separate from South Korea by negotiating with China alone, and President-elect Yun Seok-yeol paved the way for the United States' sole approach in the "nuclear human rights first principle".
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Communist Party Politburo Yang Jiechi announced in Rome on the 14th that they had reached an agreement between the U.S. and China to continue dialogue in the near future between the responsible authorities and the two sides during a discussion on Russia and North Korea issues in Rome.
In response to North Korea's response to the ICBM launch at a briefing in Rome, the State Department said, "We will continue to discuss with China about measures to pressure North Korea, etc." (in addition to obviously the United States continuing our close work with our allies in Seoul and Tokyo),” he told Voice of America (VOA).
A high-ranking U.S. official said, "We discussed the North Korean issue along with plans to respond to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The two sides discussed the North Korean issue because it is an escalating situation that requires our attention.” “We agree that officials with responsibility for issues and the “two sides will keep in their conversations in the near future,” he said.
"I think there is a history of cooperation between the United States and China on this issue," Sullivan said in Rome. In addition, the U.S. continues to cooperate closely with our allies, South Korea and Japan,” said an American official who announced this. "The US State Department's special representative for North Korea and Liu Shaoming, China's special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs, will discuss further on specific measures to pressure North Korea to take a path other than escalating tensions."
Earlier on the 10th, US Representative Sung Kim and Chinese representative Liu Shaoming had a phone conversation, and the US State Department released a press release saying, “To discuss the launch of a ballistic missile by North Korea on the 26th and 4th of last month, which the US government concluded with the test of the new North Korean ICBM system. “I had a phone call with China’s Special Representative for the Korean Peninsula, Liu Shaoming,” he said. “President Sung Kim encourages China to suspend destabilizing activities and return to dialogue with North Korea. He repeatedly emphasized that he was still open to diplomacy.”
China had previously demanded that the US ease sanctions as compensation for North Korea's 'delayed nuclear-ICBM test-fire', saying that the US should resolve North Korea's 'reasonable security concerns' in relation to North Korea's nuclear and missile issues.
In a VOA interview (on the 3rd, Kim Seong-han, a member of the Foreign Affairs and Security Transition Committee), President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol talked about the policy promise of 'principled engagement', saying, "The principle we are advocating rather than rushing to listen to what North Korea wants just because it brings North Korea into dialogue, is again In other words, denuclearization should be given the highest priority over any other pending issues. The third is negotiation and dialogue, but it does not neglect North Korea's human rights issue, but gives importance to it," he said.
Regarding the 'access to China', President-elect Yoon continued, "If Korea-U.S. relations play a pivotal role in stable development, China will treat Korea commensurately, and Korea will also have a solid foundation for treating China with mutual respect." He revealed that he would “deploy additional THAAD,” paving the way for the US to respond to China alone.