Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has held discussions with his US and South Korean counterparts on the Chinese-Russian proposal for the suspension of joint military exercises by those countries in exchange for North Korea halting its nuclear and missile test programmes.

The Foreign Secretary regularly discusses the DPRK with his US and South Korean counterparts. Russia and China have promoted a 'freeze for freeze roadmap' as a route into negotiations on the nuclear issue. Both the US and South Korea have said the Chinese and Russian proposal is unacceptable as it falsely equates North Korea's continued pursuit of illegal nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes in violation of multiple UN Resolutions and lawful defensive military co-operation between allies and partners. The Foreign Secretary has also made this clear to his Chinese and Russian counterparts.

We welcome the news that President Moon Jae-In and Kim Jong Un plan to hold a leaders summit and that Kim Jong Un is willing to hold direct talks on denuclearisation with President Trump by May. We welcome too North Korea's commitment to suspend nuclear and missile tests while dialogue continues. We note that North Korea accepts that scheduled military exercises will still go ahead as planned.