1. On September 16, Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha had a meeting and a working dinner with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Beibut Atamkulov, who was on an official visit to the Republic of Korea (ROK). During the meeting and the dinner, the two Ministers extensively discussed the ROK-Kazakhstan relations, substantive cooperation, the situation on the Korean Peninsula and key international issues.

2. With the year 2019 marking the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the bilateral strategic partnership, the two Ministers took note of the great progress made by the two countries in such areas as high-level exchanges, trade, and people-to-people exchanges.

° The two Ministers expressed satisfaction with the fact that the governments and the parliaments of the two countries have continued cooperation and communication in various fields through robust high-level exchanges, including the ROK President’s state visit to Kazakhstan in April 2019.

° The two Ministers, welcoming the steady growth in economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, noted that the bilateral trade volume had already reached a record-breaking 2.4 billion USD as of July 2019.

° The two Ministers agreed to steadily strengthen bilateral cooperation on trade, investment, energy, resources and infrastructure while expanding areas of cooperation to such industries as science, technology, and information and communications technology, as well as to the restoration of the Aral Sea and other environmental matters.

° The two Ministers, welcoming the lately growing cooperative mood among Central Asian countries, agreed to work closely together toward the success of the 12^th Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum, scheduled to take place in Kazakhstan this year, with the aim to promote cooperation between the ROK and Central Asia.

3. Minister Kang explained the current situation on the Korean Peninsula and the ROK government’s inter-Korean policy, and asked for Kazakhstan’s support and cooperation on the efforts of the ROK government to achieve complete denuclearization and establish permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.

° In addition, Minister Kang positively noted that after its voluntary denuclearization, Kazakhstan has achieved dazzling national development and is leading denuclearization efforts of the international community. She went on to express hope that the ROK and Kazakhstan would cooperate on non-proliferation and denuclearization in order for the latter’s denuclearization experience to provide implications for the denuclearization efforts on the Korean Peninsula.

° Minister Atamkulov affirmed continued support for the ROK government’s position on Korean Peninsula issues and expressed willingness to cooperate actively in sharing denuclearization experience.

4. The two Ministers also discussed key international issues as well as ways to work together on the international stage.

5. The second foreign ministers’ meeting with Kazakhstan since Minister Kang’s inauguration is seen to have served as an opportunity to review the progress in sectoral substantive cooperation with Kazakhstan, the ROK government’s major cooperation partner for its New Northern Policy, and to further reinforce the cooperation base built by the ROK President’s state visit to Kazakhstan last April.