Joe Biden and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in to meet at White House in May
- The US president is seeking trilateral cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo on regional security concerns like China and North Korea
- The two leaders will discuss how to push forward efforts to stem Pyongyang’s nuclear programme
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Moon’s spokesman Kang Min-seok said in a statement issued early on Friday, Seoul time, that Moon and Biden will discuss ways to develop strong ties between their countries and close cooperation to “achieve complete denuclearisation and lasting peace” on the Korean peninsula.
Kang said the visit would take place in late May.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the summit would take place in the second half of May and the exact date was still being finalised.
Speaking at a regular news briefing on Thursday, she said the meeting would “highlight the ironclad US-South Korea alliance”.
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Marc Knapper, the senior official for Japan and Korea at the US State Department, told an event at Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies on Thursday that the summit with Suga would include discussion of North Korea’s nuclear missile programme, which threatens all three countries.
North Korea has rejected unilateral disarmament and given no indication that it is willing to go beyond statements of broad support for the concept of universal denuclearisation.
