A newly launched South Korea-U.S. consultative body on North Korea policy differs fundamentally from the 2018 bilateral working group, South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday, pushing back against concerns that the new framework could repeat past mistakes. The clarification came a day after Seoul and Washington held the inaugural meeting of the consultative body amid concerns that it could mirror the earlier working group, which was widely seen as giving the United States excessive influence over South Korea's approach on North Korea. "Both South Korea and the U.S. clearly recognized that the purpose and background of the discussions were entirely different from those of the previous working group, and this understanding remains unchanged," a foreign ministry official said during a closed-door briefing. "We have received similar explanations from the U.S. side as well," the official added. The meeting was co-chaired by Jeong Yeon-doo, vice minister for diplomatic strategy and intelligence at the foreign ministry, and acting U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Kevin Kim. During