S. Korean president-elect’s envoy says it reached consensus with US on upgrading alliance

Posted on : 2022-04-06 17:21 KST Modified on : 2022-04-06 17:21 KST
A policy coordination delegation sent to the US by Yoon Suk-yeol met with the US secretary of state and the White House’s Asia tsar
People Power Party Rep. Park Jin (sixth from left) poses for a photo with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman following policy consultations on April 4 at the State Department in Washington. (provided by the US State Department)
People Power Party Rep. Park Jin (sixth from left) poses for a photo with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman following policy consultations on April 4 at the State Department in Washington. (provided by the US State Department)

A delegation for South Korea-US policy discussions dispatched by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol announced that it had “reached a consensus” with the US after “sharing President-elect Yoon’s vision for upgrading the South Korea-US alliance to the higher level of a comprehensive strategic alliance.”

“The US welcomed the President-elect’s vision for strengthening the South Korea-US alliance — a key pillar of regional security and prosperity — into a partnership that contributes at the global level, including the responses to the Ukraine situation and COVID-19,” said the delegation’s leader, People Power Party lawmaker Park Jin, while speaking with reporters Monday after a meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.

Park also said the two sides had “agreed on the importance of renewed consultative group activities for extended deterrence, which have not been functioning as they should.”

During his election campaign, Yoon pledged to pursue increased meetings of the South Korea-US Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group, which was originally established to promote trust in the US nuclear umbrella but had not convened since its second meeting in January 2018.

“The delegation explained in detail the president-elect’s vision for North Korea policy, namely the achievement of sustainable peace and safety on the Korean Peninsula through ‘complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement’ of North Korea’s nuclear program, and the US indicated its support for that,” Park said.

In a press readout on the meeting, the US State Department quoted Sherman as saying she “looks forward to working with the new administration when it takes office in May” and stressing “the importance of U.S.-ROK cooperation in tackling [. . .] threats to regional security from the DPRK, supply chain resiliency, combatting the climate crisis, and ending the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The delegation also met the same day with Kurt Campbell, the White House coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, whom it quoted as “welcoming South Korea’s indication of its willingness to cooperate with the Quad” and “anticipating the possibility of different forms of cooperation at the working group level.”

Yoon has said he plans to explore officially joining the Quad framework while initially taking part at the level of working groups on vaccination, climate change, and new technology.

By Lee Bon-young, Washington correspondent

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