The United States has expressed support for the ongoing inter-Korean Red Cross talks aimed at arranging reunions for separated families.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. encourages and supports efforts aimed at resolving issues like family reunification.

He said such issues are important and obviously very emotional, adding that the U.S. encourages these kinds of contacts between the two Koreas and in more general terms, dialogue between South and North Korea.

Kelly reiterated that the main goal when it comes to Korea is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, adding that it is important that such efforts are conducted in a multilateral context.

He stressed that the U.S. wants to have a regional solution to the North’s nuclear issue and that the U.S. does not want to disenfranchise its regional partners in resolving Pyongyang’s nuclear standoff.