President Moon Jae-in held back-to-back summits with President of South Africa Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Argentina. Discussions at both summits focused on ways to promote bilateral relations.
President Moon told President Ramaphosa, “South Africa can serve as a good example for North Korea in the denuclearization process as it has experienced voluntarily abandoning its nuclear development program for regional stability and peace.” He continued to urge his South African counterpart to make active efforts to persuade the North and to steer it toward denuclearization. South Africa will become a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council starting next year.
President Moon said, “Korean executives in charge of businesses operating in the Republic of South Africa usually stay five years, but the country issues four-year visas. If a visa is issued in accordance with their employment period, Korean businesses' investment will increase in a brisk manner."
In reply, President Ramaphosa said he would immediately address visa-related issues. He went on to say that he welcomed and was pleased by the two Koreas' efforts to narrow their differences and cooperate and praised President Moon's endeavors to that end. Noting that Korea was a very important partner to his country, President Ramaphosa said he hoped Korea would be able to provide much assistance such as investments by businesses to address the many problems facing his country, including unemployment, poverty and inequality.
In his summit with Prime Minister Rutte, President Moon said, “I met U.S. President Trump yesterday, and we agreed to make joint endeavors so that significant headway can be made in North Korea’s denuclearization on the occasion of the upcoming second North Korea-U.S. summit and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un’s reciprocal visit to Seoul.” President Moon then asked the Prime Minister to make sure that “the Netherlands, a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and chair of the U.N. Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea, will continue to provide support till the end to solve the North Korean nuclear issue.”