1. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha attended the UN Security Council ministerial meeting on the denuclearization of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) chaired by Secretary of State of the United States Mike Pompeo in New York on September 27, local time. She took the opportunity to share with the other participants the progress toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, including the outcome of the inter-Korean summit talks, and asked the international community to support the efforts to achieve more tangible results in the future, such as at the US-North Korea negotiations.

° The meeting brought together US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (The US is  the President of the Security Council for September) as well as foreign ministers of Security Council member states, and the directly concerned Republic of Korea and Japan.

2. Minister Kang, citing North Korea’s participation in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in February 2018, the three rounds of inter-Korean summit talks and the US-North Korea summit meeting in June, stated that compared with the situation on the Korean Peninsula only a year ago, when North Korea had conducted a series of nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches, the Korean Peninsula had seen unforeseen positive changes in its situation.

° The Minister noted with appreciation that there had been a series of progressive measures to achieve a complete denuclearization and establish a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula. Among those measures she enumerated were North Korea’s announcement of its plan to discontinue nuclear tests as well as launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs); the adoption of the inter-Korean Panmunjom Declaration; North Korea’s dismantlement of its nuclear test site in Punggye-ri; the adoption of the US-North Korea joint statement in Singapore; Chairman Kim Jong-un’s expression of the commitment to denuclearization at the inter-Korean summit joint press conference in September; and the adoption of the joint Pyeongyang Declaration that calls for taking such concrete measures as permanently dismantling the Dongchang-ri missile engine test site and the nuclear facilities in Yeongbyeon in exchange for corresponding measures by the US.

° The Minister stressed that in the process, the international community, led by the Security Council, had adopted resolutions on North Korea and enforced sanctions under those resolutions, and thereby had sent a clear message to North Korea that its pursuit of nuclear weapons program would never be accepted and the door for dialogue was kept open. She added that the ROK government was committed to continuing to work with the international community to ensure that the Council’s sanctions were faithfully implemented, even as the ROK continued to engage North Korea to facilitate substantial progress towards a complete denuclearization.

° She went on to mention that the ROK was also furthering inter-Korean dialogue to solidify the momentum for reconciliation and better relations, including by implementing the comprehensive military agreement signed in Pyeongyang with the aim to eliminate the threat of war and prevent accidental clashes.

° She emphasized that efforts toward a complete denuclearization and an enduring peace on the Korean Peninsula should continue under bold, far-sighted and determined leadership and the unity of the international community.

3. The Security Council member states commended the efforts made by the ROK, North Korea and the US over the past months to achieve a complete denuclearization and a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and diplomacy; and voiced hope that the international community, led by the Security Council, would continue working together to that end.

* unofficial translation