South Korea is willing to provide COVID-19 vaccines to North Korea in order to help the country reopen its long-closed borders and resume diplomacy with the outside world, Seoul’s top foreign ministry official on DPRK affairs said Friday.

Speaking at a Jeju Forum discussion session, Noh Kyu-duk, the South Korean foreign ministry’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, stressed that diplomacy and dialogue are “indispensable” means for addressing the North Korean nuclear issue.