South Korea and the US agreed to maintain close coordination on efforts to revive dialogue with North Korea, days after Pyongyang rebuffed President Donald Trump’s overtures and launched a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a phone call late on Monday that Seoul would work to ensure that Trump’s recent messages lead to renewed US-North Korea discussions and peace on the Korean peninsula, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The US State Department issued only a brief statement on the phone call, which comes at a period of tension between the allies. Trump recently announced a scaling back of joint military exercises and praised nuclear-armed North Korea, while saying that Seoul had not helped his efforts to try to denuclearise Iran.
The State Department said Rubio and Cho discussed “a range of issues in the US-ROK Alliance”, referring to South Korea by the initials of its official name, the Republic of Korea.
“The secretary noted the need for the two countries to remain in close coordination on matters that are integral to the alliance,” it added.
In its statement, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry did not mention whether the diplomats reaffirmed their usual commitment to North Korea’s denuclearisation, despite their emphasis on the importance of cooperation on the North Korean nuclear issue.
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