President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump held a telephone conversation for 40 minutes from 10:45 to 11:25 tonight. They had in-depth discussions on how to respond to North Korea’s sixth nuclear test and reached a surprise agreement as part of effective response measures to lift limits on South Korea’s missile payloads in the ballistic missile guideline between Korea and the United States.

The two heads of state shared an understanding that the North’s nuclear test was a defiant violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions despite repeated international warnings, including from South Korea and the United States. They also agreed that it posed a serious challenge to the peace and safety of the international community as well as the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia. With a recognition that the test was a grave provocation that was entirely different and unprecedented in scale and nature, the two leaders strongly condemned North Korea for its provocation.

President Moon said that it was very worrisome because the North this time detonated a bomb that was several times stronger than the previous ones and because the North claimed that it had tested a hydrogen bomb to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile. The President continued to emphasize that it was necessary to come up with unprecedentedly strong and practical countermeasures that could be keenly felt by the North in cooperation with the international community. In this connection, President Trump expressed his complete agreement, pledging to work closely together.

In particular, President Trump reaffirmed Washington`s ironclad commitment to South Korea`s defense. The two leaders came to an agreement to seek measures to actively respond to the North`s provocations and make watertight preparations for possible future provocations on the basis of the strong ROK-U.S. combined defense posture.

As part of these efforts, the two leaders agreed to remove the maximum payload weight limit for a Korean missile specified in the Korea-U.S. bilateral ballistic missile guideline. Moreover, President Moon said, as part of the measures to respond to North Korea’s repeated nuclear and missile provocations, the temporary deployment of the THAAD battery of U.S. Forces Korea would be completed as quickly as possible according to domestic procedures.

Sharing an understanding that now was the time that maximum pressure and sanctions needed to be applied to the North, the two leaders agreed to, above all, seek a tougher United Nations Security Council sanctions resolution.

In the phone conversation today, the two leaders agreed to continue close communications at various levels and meet each other on the sidelines of the upcoming U.N. General Assembly.