SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Newly appointed chief US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill on Friday called for "coordinated approaches" of the United States and South Korea toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported.

    Hill, who is also US Ambassador to South Korea, said "I'm certainly not going to be giving advice to the ROK (Republic of Korea) when they received the request of fertilizer...(But) again,I think it's very important we coordinate various initiatives, we coordinate our approaches to the DPRK."

    In January, Pyongyang requested 500,000 tons of fertilizer fromSeoul. Whether to meet the demand became a thorny issue for the South Korean government after Pyongyang announced last week its indefinite suspension of participation in the six-party talks aimed to solve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

    Hill added "We don't have to have identical actions, but we do have to have coordinated actions."

    Earlier this week, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said on his return from a US trip that Seoul will continue to provide humanitarian aid to Pyongyang while halting large inter-Korean projects before the nuclear issue is resolved. Enditem