President Moon Jae-in continued his schedule while in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly by meeting today with leading American policy experts on issues involving the Korean Peninsula. President Moon held a meeting with the heads of three U.S. think tanks? President Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations, President Thomas Byrne of the Korea Society and President Kevin Rudd of the Asia Society Policy Institute.  He is the former Australian Prime Minister.

During the meeting, President Moon was forthright in seeking input from the participating pundits about a solution to the North Korean nuclear issue.

In his opening remarks, President Moon said, “As you all know, tension on the Korean Peninsula has escalated higher than at any time before. North Korea is continuing its nuclear and missile provocations, and we need to work with the international community to apply sanctions and pressure tough enough to make the North fundamentally change its stance and cease to carry out additional provocations. On another front, there is an increasing worry over whether sanctions and pressure could lead to military confrontation. Under these circumstances, I want to hear your invaluable advice on how to break through the crisis.” 

President Moon explained about the international community`s endeavors to curb additional provocations by the North and facilitate a resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue in the difficult environment created by a string of provocative acts. The President then underscored that his Administration`s priority was placed on the principle of peacefully resolving the matter in tandem with enhanced sanctions and pressure against North Korea.

The heads of the think tanks expressed their opinions in a detailed manner based on their experiences and analysis of the strategies of the countries concerned and their positions on the North Korean nuclear issue. They emphasized the importance of the ROK-U.S. alliance that plays a pivotal role, fine-tuning policy coordination based on the alliance, maintaining cooperation among Korea, the United States and Japan and eliciting cooperation from China. In particular, they noted that what was needed more was to devise creative plans and create right circumstances contributing to a diplomatic resolution of the matter, going beyond just responding to the threats from the North. 

The Council on Foreign Relations, founded in 1921, is a major American think tank specializing in international relations and foreign policy and has 4,900 members, including former and current high-ranking officials, business leaders and scholars. Since 2011, it has been operating the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy. The Korea Society is a non-profit organization founded in 1957 to promote bilateral exchanges, and its President Thomas J. Byrne has been actively promoting the relationship between the two countries, contributing columns to major media outlets in the United States that advocate the significance of the Korea-U.S. alliance and FTA. The Asia Society Policy Institute, founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller III, is the largest Asia-focused research institute in the United States.  

The heads of the think tanks said that, in the United States, there was a widespread understanding of and support for the importance of the Korea-U.S. alliance to peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and in the Asia Pacific as well as Korea’s contribution to and role in responding to and solving the North Korean nuclear issue. 

President Moon asked for the major think tanks’ continued cooperation to improve understanding and awareness of the significance of the Korea-U.S. alliance and to increase the support base in the United States.