South Korea and the United States are maintaining a "very close" partnership on all North Korea-related issues, acting US Ambassador to Seoul Kevin Kim said.
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SEOUL — South Korea and the United States are maintaining a "very close" partnership on all North Korea-related issues, acting US Ambassador to Seoul Kevin Kim said Wednesday, as the allies are seeking a regular meeting on coordinating their policy on the North.
Kim made the remark after he met Jeong Yeon-doo, head of the office of strategy and intelligence at the Foreign Ministry, to discuss Seoul and Washington's policy on North Korea.
"The United States and Korea are closely coordinating on all issues, but it's very productive as always, and we have a very close partnership on all North Korea-related issues," Kim told reporters, when asked if the two diplomats discussed launching a task force on North Korea policy, Yonhap News Agency reported.
But Kim declined to comment when asked whether the US is concerned about Lee's proposed policy goal to seek a "nuclear-free Korean Peninsula".
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The allies are in talks to hold a regular meeting on coordinating their policy on North Korea as the Lee Jae Myung administration seeks to mend frayed ties with the North and resume inter-Korean talks.
Last month, Jeong was appointed to the vice-ministerial post responsible for intelligence and North Korean nuclear issues.
On December 8, a US envoy reaffirmed that "complete denuclearisation" of North Korea remains the policy shared with South Korea, after a new US security strategy document showed the phrase was absent.
Ambassador Kim made the mark following his meeting with First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo, days after the Donald Trump administration released its latest National Security Strategy (NSS).
The document includes no mention of North Korea and contains no language reaffirming the US commitment to its denuclearisation, unlike the 2017 and 2022 versions, raising concerns that North Korea issues could be pushed to the sidelines.
"President Trump and President Lee (Jae Myung) reiterated their commitment to the complete denuclearisation of North Korea in the joint fact sheet," Kim told reporters when asked about the NSS, referring to the joint summit document recently released by the allies.
"That is our Korea policy right now," he said.
Kim said North Korea was among the issues discussed during his meeting with Park, including ways to "best coordinate" on related and other issues.
Kim also noted that Seoul has reaffirmed the importance of coordination on joint military exercises, apparently referring to growing calls in South Korea to adjust the drills with the US as leverage to bring Pyongyang back to dialogue.
"(Defence) Minister Ahn previously reiterated the absolute critical nature of coordinating on joint military exercises. I think the words that he used were that military exercises are like the lifeline of a military. That's our expectation moving forward," he said.
Asked if the US is open to revising the nuclear energy pact to allow Seoul to enrich uranium and reprocess spent fuel, the envoy said the two sides are "still in discussions".
"We are going to do our best to implement the joint fact sheet," Kim said.
The joint fact sheet lays out the commitments on trade, investment, security and other issues made during the two recent summits between President Lee and US President Trump in August and October.
In the document, the US states support for the process that will lead to South Korea's civil uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing for peaceful use, consistent with their existing bilateral nuclear energy pact and subject to US legal requirements.
In the recent high-level talks in Washington, Seoul and Washington agreed to launch working groups for follow-up talks on the joint fact sheet.