South Korea's Moon, Biden reaffirm commitment to alliance
Pair agree to work together on global threats including coronavirus, climate change
Seoul: South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President-elect Joe Biden reaffirmed their commitment to the two countries’ alliance and a peaceful Korean peninsula during their phone call on Thursday, Moon said on Twitter.
In their first conversation since Biden’s election victory, Moon also said he will work closely with the incoming US administration to tackle global challenges including the coronavirus pandemic and climate change.
The call came days after South Korea’s foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha met several Biden allies in Washington and asked for the Biden administration’s “summit-level” attention to reopen denuclearisation talks with North Korea.
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to work towards denuclearisation at their unprecedented summit in 2018, but little progress has been made since their second summit and working-level talks collapsed last year.
Moon’s administration is pinning hopes on a restart of the stalled negotiations which could facilitate his inter-Korean economic initiatives. The plans have been hamstrung by international sanctions imposed over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes.
The presidential Blue House said its National Security Council also held a meeting on Thursday to review the US election. The Council also discussed ways to advance the US-South Korea alliance and achieve peace and denuclearisation on the peninsula.