South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said he will "step up efforts to produce visible results" in security talks with the United States, including discussions on nuclear energy and nuclear-powered submarines.
Cho outlined the achievements of summit diplomacy at a briefing on the 2nd at the Foreign Ministry building in Jongno District, Seoul. Referring to the recent announcement of the first project under the investment package for the United States, he said, "As President Lee Jae-myung and President Trump agreed, the Korea-U.S. strategic investment will be an important historic milestone in realizing the vision of strengthening the alliance into a future-oriented, comprehensive strategic alliance." He added, "We will further accelerate consultations between Korea and the United States to produce visible results in areas such as conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines, civilian uranium enrichment and reprocessing for peaceful use, shipbuilding cooperation and the transfer of wartime operational control." The remarks signal an intent to pick up the pace in security talks, given that follow-up consultations on economic issues from last October's Korea-U.S. summit have made considerable progress.
Cho said the ministry has been "closely managing 610 tasks related to follow-up measures from summit diplomacy since the government took office through this past August," adding that "212 of them, or 35%, have been completed, and 382 more are proceeding without setbacks." He said the ministry set up a task force on summit diplomacy performance management to review implementation monthly and hold related meetings. Among the results of those follow-up measures, Cho cited resolving difficulties Korean companies faced under Italy's super-depreciation scheme, securing export quotas for Korean firms in response to European Union steel import restrictions, and responding to scam crimes in Southeast Asia, including the extradition of drug kingpin Park Wang-yeol to South Korea.
Cho also emphasized a "reinvention of overseas missions." He said, "There are about 700 Korean public institutions operating abroad, and going forward, through the reinvention of overseas missions, we will give mission chiefs the authority to consult with them so that we can use the missions as platforms to spread K-initiatives more efficiently and systematically."
