The U.S. is ready to engage in dialogue with Pyongyang to make “simultaneous and in parallel” progress towards the goals agreed to by the two countries’ leaders at their first summit last year, the U.S.’s Special Representative for North Korea said Friday.

In comments released by South Korea’s foreign ministry following a meeting between Stephen Biegun and his local counterpart Lee Do-hoon in Seoul, the top U.S. envoy stressed Washington is “ready to hold constructive discussions with North Korea.”

During that meeting, Biegun reportedly reaffirmed that the U.S. is prepared “to make progress simultaneously and in parallel toward the fulfillment of the