South Korea's Moon, Biden reaffirm commitment to alliance and peaceful peninsula
12 November, 2020
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President-elect Joe Biden reaffirmed their commitment to both countries' alliance and a calm Korean peninsula during their telephone call on Thursday (Nov 12), Moon said on Twitter.
Within their first conversation since Biden's election victory, Moon also said he'll work closely with the incoming US administration to tackle global challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
The decision 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" focus on reopen denuclearisation talks with North Korea.
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to work at denuclearisation at their unprecedented summit in 2018, but little progress has been made since their second summit and working-level talks collapsed this past year.
Moon's administration is pinning hopes on a restart of the stalled negotiations that could facilitate his inter-Korean monetary initiatives. The plans have already 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 gathering on Thursday to review the US election. The Council also discussed methods to advance the US-South Korea alliance and achieve peace and denuclearisation on the peninsula.
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