U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton and South Korean foreign minister Kim Sung-hwan held a meeting here on Friday, discussing the two countries' joint strategy to deal with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

"While we remain open to direct engagement with North Korea, we remain firm in our resolve and our shared position that Pyongyang must improve its relations with the Republic of Korea," Clinton told reporters after her meeting with Kim at the State Department.

She said the U.S. was coordinating to hold another trilateral meeting on this issue later this summer with Kim and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto.

Kim, at the same press conference, said South Korea and the U.S. agreed to pursue dialogue with the DPRK.

"We concurred that as the essential first step there needs to be a sincere and constructive inter-Korean dialogue on denuclearization," he said.

He said both sides reaffirmed that the six-party talks, once resumed, should yield "substantive progress" in denuclearization.

"To this end, we reaffirmed that North Korea must demonstrate its sincerity towards denuclearization through concrete actions," Kim said.

The six-party talks, involving the U.S., China, the DPRK, South Korea, Japan and Russia, has been on hold for more than two years.