Moon pledged to ensure no gap in peace process

President Moon Jae-in speaks during a meeting with his senior aides at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Yonhap

By Do Je-hae, Kang Seung-woo

President Moon Jae-in has underscored close cooperation with the incoming U.S. administration of Joe Biden, saying he will communicate with the president-elect and his key aides through various channels.

“We will ensure that there is no vacuum in improving our alliance and working toward a peace process on the Korean Peninsula,” Moon said during a meeting with senior aides at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. “We will do our utmost to ensure that the precious achievements made under the Donald Trump administration will be transferred to and advanced in the next administration.”

In particular, Moon spotlighted the experience of Korea's liberal administrations in working with Democratic administrations in the U.S. on North Korea. The first inter-Korean summit in June 2000 took place during the Bill Clinton administration, followed by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's visit to North Korea and her meeting with the late North Korea leader Kim Jong-il in October of the same year.

U.S. President Trump held two summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. On the campaign trail, Biden has shown a preference for “bottom-up” diplomacy rather than heads-of-state summitry with Kim. This has triggered concerns that Moon's focus on facilitating U.S.-North Korea talks as he has been doing for the Trump administration could be weakened. But Moon reiterated his commitment to his Korean Peninsula peace process.

“We have unwavering determination in pursuing the Korean peace process,” Moon said. “Based on the achievements and the experiences, we will learn from the past and gather wisdom for even greater progress in achieving denuclearization and establishing peace on the peninsula.

“We expect to create an environment where we can explore new opportunities and solutions in inter-Korean relations. With strong cooperation between South Korea and the U.S., we hope that the South and the North will play a more important role as direct parties to the Korean Peninsula issue.”

During the United Nations General Assembly in September, Moon proposed the establishment of the “Northeast Asia Cooperation Initiative for Infectious Disease Control and Public Health,” which countries in the region including the two Koreas would participate in.

The Korean leader also underlined active communication with Biden and his team. “We will communicate closely with President-elect Biden who is getting ready to launch his administration.”

In the meantime, Unification Minister Lee In-young said, Monday, that the government will play a “certain role” in positively affecting the Biden administration's adoption of a North Korea policy.

“When a new U.S. administration is inaugurated, it takes several months before fully coming up with its overall foreign policy strategy and during this period, we plan to communicate with the U.S. side through a variety of channels to explain our stance on the North,” Lee said in a press conference in Seoul.

“Historically, the U.S. government has listened to the South Korean government's opinions and, to an extent, its engagement with the North has been affected by inter-Korean relations. With the new U.S. administration, we will make efforts for the Biden government to cooperate with and support President Moon's Korean Peninsula peace process.”

Lee, a long-time advocate of engagement with the North, also said he will fully explain the necessity of trilateral cooperation between the U.S., and South and North Korea as well as the importance of denuclearization and a permanent peace regime on the peninsula.

“I hope that the South Korea-U.S. alliance will take a further step forward through this process,” he said.