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South Korean President Moon Jae-in presides over a meeting with senior secretaries and aides at the Blue House on Nov. 9. (provided by the Blue House)

On Nov. 9, South Korean President Moon Jae-in promised to work closely with the incoming administration of interim US President-Elect Joe Biden in order to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula and to achieve its denuclearization. Moon also said he would proactively cooperate with action on climate change, a cause that Biden has championed.

“Democratic Party-led administrations in the US have experience working closely with Democratic Party-led administrations in South Korea on the peace process. Based on our previous experience and accomplishments and the lessons of the past, the South Korean government will share ideas with the next [American] administration about making even more progress on establishing peace and denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula,” Moon said while presiding over a meeting of senior secretaries and aides at the Blue House on Monday.

“Along with firm cooperation between South Korea and the US, I hope that South and North Korea will be able to play an even more important role as the parties concerned on Korean Peninsula issues,” Moon said, indicating that he’ll seek to improve inter-Korean relations while also boosting cooperation with the US.

Moon also reconfirmed that he’ll do his best to ensure that North Korea-US relations don’t revert to their status prior to Donald Trump’s summit diplomacy with Kim Jong-un. “The South Korean government maintained smooth security cooperation with the Trump administration throughout the US presidential election, and we’ll continue working with the Trump administration until the end, including in our foreign ministers’ meeting tomorrow,” Moon said.

“We’ll work diligently to ensure that everything we’ve achieved with the Trump administration so far is sustained and further developed under the next administration,” Moon said.

“We must make sure that there are no interruptions in efforts to reinforce the South Korea-US alliance or advance the Korean Peninsula peace process,” Moon added.

Moon also promised to work actively with Biden on dealing with climate change, one of Biden’s key areas of interest. “The policies of carbon neutrality and climate action emphasized by President-Elect Biden are consistent with our government’s goal of carbon neutrality and the Green New Deal policy, leaving considerable room for cooperation,” Moon stressed.

“I hope that the similar values we pursue and the common threads in our policies will provide a foundation for ushering in the post-COVID era,” Moon said. Moon pledged during a policy address to the National Assembly last month that South Korea would achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

“I congratulate Biden’s election victory alongside the Korean public. While it may take some time for that victory to be made official, I expect the election’s final stage to reach a sound conclusion based on the values of the US’ longstanding democratic tradition, the rule of law, and a mature civil society,” Moon said on Monday, referring to Biden as “president-elect” for the first time since the election.

By Lee Wan, staff reporter

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