File photo provided by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un (R) shaking hands with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang, DPRK, Oct. 7, 2018. (Xinhua/KCNA)

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently emphasized the role of a working group set up by the United States and South Korea in coordination of the Korean Peninsula-related issues including peace mechanism and denuclearization.

According to a transcript provided by the State Department on Monday regarding Pompeo's interview with KFDI News on Nov. 21 via teleconference, Pompeo confirmed that the working group aims to make sure that the United States and South Korea work together on such issues as inter-Korean cooperation and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The group was important as it had been designed to make sure that the effort to restore peace on the peninsula "moves in parallel with the denuclearization discussions," the U.S. top diplomat added. "We are in lockstep with our Republic of Korea partners and we want to make sure we stay that way."

The U.S. State Department said on Nov. 20 that U.S. special representative on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)-related issues, Stephen Biegun, and Lee Do-hoon, South Korean special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, co-chaired a bilateral working group in Washington earlier on the same day.

Also on Nov. 20, Pompeo said that the working group "formalizes" the processes of dealing with inter-Korean cooperation and the Peninsula denuclearization so that the U.S. and South Korean sides don't "talk past each other" or "take an action that the other is unaware of or hasn't had a chance to comment on or provide their thoughts."

Pompeo noted that Washington views efforts to propell peace and the denuclearization as "tandem" and shall move forward together.

"We view them as important parallel processes, and that working group is designed to make sure they continue to remain that way," he added.

After the two nations' leaders met in June in Singapore, the negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have been stuck due to bilateral differences on key problems like the pace and manners of the DPRK's denuclearization, the timing and condition to sign a peace treaty, and the U.S. economic compensation in return, among others.

On Nov. 7, the State Department announced that Pompeo's meeting with Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee, which had been scheduled for Nov. 8 in New York, would "take place at a later date."

While speaking about these issues in the interview with KFDI, Pompeo said that "we are prepared to be patient, but all the while... we're working to make sure that North Korea (DPRK) has continued to stop its missile tests, continued to stop its nuclear tests, the economic sanctions which have caused North Korea to engage with us will remain in place."