1. Deputy Minister for Political Affairs Yoon Soon-gu of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs met separately with Special Representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun and Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton of the US Department of State, and US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver in the US from January 29 to 30, local time, and exchanged views on a range of issues between the ROK and the US, including the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games and the North Korean nuclear issue.

2. In the meetings, Deputy Minister Yoon explained the latest developments in inter-Korean relations, including preparations for North Korea’s participation in the PyeongChang Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The two sides also shared the view that it is important to create a virtuous cycle between an improvement in inter-Korean relations and the North Korean nuclear issue by making sure that inter-Korean talks lead to various forms of meaningful dialogues, while closely cooperating with the international community.

3. The ROK and US sides said that the visit to the ROK by Vice President Mike Pence, the head of a high-level US delegation to the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games, shows the strong ROK-US alliance, solidarity between the people of the two countries, and the US side’s full support for the success of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. The two sides also agreed to continue to closely work together to make Vice President Pence’s upcoming visit to the ROK a success.

4. Deputy Minister Yoon’s visit to the US was part of efforts to further strengthen communications and policy coordination at each level between the two countries with high-level officials in charge of foreign and defense policies toward the Korean Peninsula and the Asia-Pacific at the US Departments of State and Defense.

* unofficial translation