South Korea's top nuclear envoy, Lee Do-hoon (R) and his US counterpart Stephen Biegun met in Seoul on December 16, 2019. (Yonhap)

South Korea’s Special representative for Korean peninsula Lee Do-hoon and his US counterpart Stephen Biegun shared their assessments of the situation on the peninsula and discussed cooperation in making “substantive” progress in the peace efforts”.

Their talks were arranged at Biegun's request amid concerns that Pyongyang's focus on fending off the COVID-19 epidemic and US President Donald Trump's preparations for the November election could negatively affect the efforts to resume nuclear negotiations between the two countries.