South Korean and U.S. top diplomats discuss North Korea at Paris G7 meeting... Back-channel coordination on U.S.-North Korea summit?

[Financial News] South Korean and U.S. foreign ministers met on the sidelines of a Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers’ meeting and discussed North Korea. South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun held a separate meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the second day of the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Paris.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 10th, the two ministers exchanged views on North Korea, overall South Korea-U.S. relations, and high-level exchanges. They also agreed to work closely together to ensure the continued development of bilateral ties, including progress on agreements reached between the two countries’ leaders.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not disclose details of the two ministers’ discussions. President Donald Trump has hoped to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which will be held in Shenzhen, China, on the 18th and 19th.
With only about a week to go before the Shenzhen APEC summit, this meeting between the top South Korean and U.S. diplomats was effectively the last opportunity to coordinate views on a U.S.-North Korea summit.
After Republicans lost the U.S. midterm elections, some suggested that President Trump might be interested in a U.S.-North Korea summit to achieve diplomatic gains. However, many have said that the chances of such a summit are slim.
Joseph Yun, a former U.S. chargé d’affaires in South Korea, said he expected the chances of a U.S.-North Korea summit taking place to be slim at the Korea-U.S. Foreign Affairs Forum hosted that day by the Korea-U.S. Parliamentary Association.
He said, “The North Korean and U.S. leaders have met three times, but North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gained nothing. He was humiliated at the Hanoi summit,” and assessed, “North Korea is gaining a great deal from China and Russia and is no longer an isolated country. It is an important country in the fields of conventional and nuclear weapons. It is not interested in meeting with President Trump.” There were also concerns that the Trump administration might recognize North Korea as a nuclear-weapon state and engage in talks with it, but face opposition from the U.S. Democratic Party. 
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