The unification ministry says it will not take part in regular consultative talks attended by South Korean and U.S. foreign affairs officials and will instead hold separate discussions on North Korea policy with the U.S. if deemed necessary.

The ministry said Monday that it had decided not to attend the gathering, which is likely to be held for the first time as early as Tuesday, because it will center on foreign affairs concerning Seoul and Washington.

The ministry stressed that it will hold talks separately with the U.S. if deemed necessary on issues related to North Korea, including inter-Korean dialogue and South-North exchanges and cooperation.

Jeong Yeon-doo, head of the office of strategy and intelligence at the foreign ministry, and Kevin Kim, U.S. chargé d’affaires ad interim, are said to be planning to attend the upcoming talks as chief delegates.

The ministry apparently decided not to attend the policy talks out of concern that the upcoming meeting could become another South Korea-U.S. working group, which some accused of having hampered inter-Korean relations during the Moon Jae-in administration after U.S.-North Korea denuclearization talks failed to make headway.

South Korea and the U.S. established the working group in 2018 to implement sanctions on the North and coordinate inter-Korean cooperation, but dissolved it after two years.