President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump, on a state visit to Korea November 7-8, held a summit at Cheong Wa Dae today. This marks their third summit to date.

Presidents Moon and Trump strongly urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile program and warned that any additional provocation would be met with resolute and overwhelming responses by the ROK-U.S. alliance. The two Presidents added the North’s reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles would simply worsen its own diplomatic isolation and economic hardships.

In addition, Presidents Moon and Trump reaffirmed the principle of peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear and missile issue, an approach agreed upon during their summit in June.

They also reconfirmed that Korea and the United States are ready to help provide North Korea with a brighter future if it chooses the right path and that the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the North will lead to lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.

President Trump renewed the steadfast and ironclad commitment of the United States to using the full range of military capabilities to defend the Republic of Korea and providing extended deterrence.

The two Presidents agreed to further strengthen the solid combined defense posture of the ROK-U.S. alliance and cooperation to enhance South Korea`s self-defense capabilities. To this end, they adopted revised Korea-U.S. missile guidelines, through which the limits on the payloads of South Korean missiles are completely removed, as of today. 

The two Presidents also instructed the officials concerned to immediately commence negotiations concerning Korea`s procurement and development of state-of-the-art military assets, including advanced reconnaissance assets. 

Prior to the summit today, President Moon and President Trump paid a visit to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, a symbol of the future direction of the alliance and Korea`s commitment to contributions. They offered military personnel of both nations encouragement and reaffirmed the solid ROK-U.S. alliance. 

President Trump also expressed his appreciation for the Korean Government’s significant contributions to improving the conditions for stationing U.S. Forces Korea in the country. In this connection, the two Presidents agreed to continue to strengthen the combined defense posture and capabilities of the alliance by sharing defense costs reasonably.  

For the enhancement of deterrence capabilities against the North Korean nuclear and missile threats and substantive responses, the two Presidents agreed to continue security cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Japan.  

President Moon and President Trump also agreed to engage in close consultations on the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement with a view to ensuring open, fair and balanced bilateral trade. 

In addition, the two leaders discussed concrete plans to promote substantive economic cooperation through mutual investment among businesses in both countries and the expansion of trade. They also said they would encourage consultations and cooperation among Korean and American companies in that regard. 

President Moon explained that preparations for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, scheduled for February 2018, would proceed in a way to foster an Olympics of peace that would contribute to peace and harmony among peoples around the world. President Trump congratulated President Moon on Korea’s hosting of the PyeongChang Olympics and reaffirmed the United States’ support for the success of the event

The two leaders said that close consultations between the two countries would continue and that they would discuss matters of mutual interest whenever the opportunity arises, including during multilateral conferences.