1. Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, who is on a visit to the United States, attended the “Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom,” hosted by the US Department of State on July 26, and participated in discussions on challenges to religious freedom, and ways to overcome them.

o Vice Minister Cho expressed concern over the rising restrictions on religious freedom and discrimination based on religion around the world despite the international community’s efforts to advance freedom, and stressed that all stakeholders, including governments, religious leaders, members of civil society, and academics, need to work together to create a culture of religious tolerance, mutual understanding, and respect.

2. During his visit to the US (July 24-28), Vice Minister Cho also met with US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan on July 27. The two sides agreed that Secretary Pompeo’s visit to North Korea was a productive first step in efforts to implement measures to follow up on the US-North Korea summit, and that it would be important to make substantive progress in the denuclearization process on the Korean Peninsula as soon as possible, building upon that. The two sides discussed a range of ways the ROK and the US can work together to do so.

o They also exchanged views on economic and trade issues, including exemptions from Iran sanctions which the ROK is seeking to get, and investigations into the impact of auto imports on national security conducted under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and agreed to work towards a mutually-beneficial conclusion.

3. In his meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Manisha Singh on the same day, Vice Minister Cho expressed concern over the recent US move to impose restrictions on car imports on national security grounds, and emphasized that the auto exports of the ROK, an ally of the US, do not threaten the security of the US.

※ The aforementioned position was delivered to the US side by the ROK government delegation consisting of officials from the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, at the public hearing held by the US Department of Commerce on July 19.

o Regarding the reinstatement of the US sanctions on Iran, Vice Minister Cho explained the ROK government’s basic position of supporting a peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue, and stressed the need to exempt the ROK from the sanctions to minimize the impact of their reinstatement on the Korean economy and companies.

4. Furthermore, during his visit to the US, Vice Minister Cho engaged in a range of public diplomacy activities, including meetings with the Atlantic Council, and editorial page editor of the Washington Post Fred Hiatt; a lecture at George Washington University; and a visit to the US Congress, and raised the US government and people’s understanding of the significance of the Panmunjeom Declaration and the Singapore Joint Statement, and the joint efforts of the ROK and the US to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, and to establish a lasting peace.

o Especially at George Washington University, the Vice Minister stressed that denuclearization and the establishment of a peace regime, improvements in inter-Korean relations and US-North Korea relations, and sanctions on North Korea and trust-building efforts must go together. In his lecture, he also discussed areas where the ROK and the US can work together based on their alliance, and talked about the way forward for the ROK-US alliance to promote peace and prosperity in the region.

※ Major public diplomacy activities

- academia and the media: △meeting with the Atlantic Council, △meetings with new President and CEO of the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI) Kathleen Stephens, former US Representative to the IAEA Laura Holgate, and Director Charles Ferguson at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, as well as editorial page editor of the Washington Post Fred Hiatt, and △lecture at George Washington University (topic: desirable future for the ROK-US alliance)

- Congress: meeting with members of the Congressional Study Group on Korea, including Rep. Ami Bera (Democrat/California)

* unofficial translation