SEOUL, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Thursday that her country will push simultaneously for improved relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and concerted efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Kang made the remarks during her meeting with Marc Knapper, acting U.S. ambassador to South Korea, and Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), according to Seoul's foreign ministry.

Kang said South Korea will closely cooperate with the international community, including the United States, to push simultaneously for enhanced inter-Korean ties and the resolution of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

Her comments indicated Seoul's efforts to encourage the DPRK to return to a dialogue table for the denuclearization of the peninsula through sanctions and pressure.

Tensions on the peninsula, which escalated last year on the DPRK's nuclear and missile provocations, showed signs of a thaw as top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un showed his willingness to participate in the South Korea-hosted Winter Olympic Games scheduled for February in the country's eastern county of PyeongChang.

In response, South Korea offered to Pyongyang holding talks on Jan. 9 about the DPRK's delegation dispatch to the winter sports event as well as other issues of mutual concern.

The two Koreas reopened a communications channel in the truce village of Panmunjom, which had been cut off since South Korea's shutdown in February 2016 of the inter-Korean industrial zone in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong.