Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed North Korea’s nuclear issue and the South Korea-U.S. alliance during talks in Washington Tuesday.

The meeting came ahead of a South Korea-U.S. summit next month and focused on establishing a basic framework of policy cooperation between the new governments of South Korea and the U.S.

Yun and Kerry exchanged views on the situation following the North’s third nuclear test, the UN Security Council’s resolution sanctioning the North and the North’s announcement to withdraw from the Korean War armistice and to nullify all nonaggression pacts. They also discussed the North’s recent announcement that it will restart the graphite moderated reactor in Yongbyon.

In particular, the South Korean government is known to be considering providing humanitarian aid to the North in the event of no further provocations from Pyongyang for the sake of building trust between the two Koreas.

Based on Tuesday’s meeting, Seoul and Washington are likely to produce substantial outcome during next month’s summit between President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama.