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US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook pose for a portrait before a meeting between Moon and the US officials at the Blue House on Thursday. (Blue House photo pool)

Foreign and defense ministers of South Korea and the US confirmed Thursday that “North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile issues are a priority for the alliance” and agreed that the two countries must handle the issues with a “fully-coordinated” strategy.

Over the course of two days, South Korea and the US highly commended the strength of the South Korea-US alliance but showed some level of disagreement on how to approach North Korea and China.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin during a meeting at the Blue House Thursday that his administration will “do all it can” to continue the Korean Peninsula peace process, including the complete denuclearization of North Korea, and that South Korea and the US need to move forward with a comprehensive and joint strategy toward North Korea. Moon further noted that his administration will continue to work to “restore the South Korean-Japanese relationship.”

Before the meeting, Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and Defense Minister Suh Wook met with the two US secretaries in the morning at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs complex to hold their “two plus two” meeting. This was the first meeting of its kind in five years following a similar meeting in Washington in Oct. 2016.

The joint statement released after the “two plus two” meeting read that “The Ministers and Secretaries emphasized that North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile issues are a priority for the Alliance, and reaffirmed a shared commitment to address and resolve these issues. They affirmed the importance of full implementation of relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions by the international community, including North Korea. The ROK and the United States are closely coordinating on all issues related to the Korean Peninsula.”

Like the previous day, Blinken again presented hardline views toward China during the post-meeting press conference and accused North Korea of “systemic and widespread” abuses against its own people.

While “China” was not mentioned in the joint statement, Blinken said in the press briefing that South Korea and the US “are clear-eyed about Beijing's consistent failure to uphold its commitments” and that “we (South Korea and the US) spoke about how Beijing's aggressive and authoritarian behavior are challenging the stability, security and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region."

He also emphasized that Beijing's actions make a common approach among US allies "all the more important."

During an appearance on Yonhap News TV, Chung distanced himself from Blinken’s repeated hardline remarks, saying that “both the US and China are important to South Korea.”

Regarding one of the critical issues facing the alliance, the handover of wartime operational control to South Korea, Austin said that “meeting all the conditions for this transition will take more time,” which suggested that there is disagreement between the two countries over an early handover.

In response to North Korea’s demands to suspend joint South Korea-US military exercises, a symbolic part of North Korea’s broader demands toward the US to rescind its “confrontational policies,” the two sides noted in their joint statement of the “importance of maintaining joint readiness against all shared threats to the Alliance through combined training and exercises.”

In short, the US and South Korea rejected North Korea’s demand to end the joint military exercises.

Choe Son-hui, North Korea’s first vice minister of foreign affairs, issued a statement yesterday saying that “The U.S. has tried to contact us since mid-February through several routes including New York. But we don't think there is [a] need to respond to the U.S. delaying-time trick again.”

Blinken did not respond to this statement.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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