Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan says the government will soon elaborate on the details of President Lee Myung-bak’s “grand bargain” proposal to resolve Pyongyang’s nuclear standoff.

Yu also said during a parliamentary inspection of his ministry on Monday that South Korea will make efforts to achieve complete and verifiable North Korean denuclearization and to get Pyongyang back to the six-way nuclear talks through the dual use of sanctions and dialogue.

Turning to relations with the U.S., Yu said that he believes the South Korea-U.S. alliance has been consolidated further since U.S. President Barack Obama took office and that the two allies are working closer than ever on all issues, including the North Korean nuclear problem.