President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a summit on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia for 50 minutes from 9:30 this morning. They discussed issues of mutual interest, including the direction of future developments in Korea-Japan relations and measures to respond to the North Korean nuclear provocation.

President Moon presented to the Japanese Prime Minister a gift of the two mascots of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Soohorang and Bandabi, specially clad in hanbok, beautiful traditional Korean clothing.

The two leaders reached an agreement that it was time to impose tougher sanctions and pressure against North Korea rather than pursuing dialogue with it. They also agreed to work together in pushing for a U.N. Security Council resolution stipulating the strongest sanctions to date on the North such as cutting off oil supplies to the country.

Notably, they concurred on the need to persuade China and Russia as hard as they could so that the two countries would sign on to the sanctions to stop oil exports to North Korea.

President Moon proposed that the two countries exert maximum pressure and sanctions on the North in cooperation with the international community to make it surely abandon nuclear and missile programs while they strive to ultimately resolve the problem in a peaceful manner.

Noting that at the last U.N. Security Council meeting, it had been agreed to adopt a new sanctions resolution in the event of an additional provocation, Prime Minister Abe said that he would make efforts to persuade China and Russia to help tougher sanctions be included in the new resolution.

The two leaders agreed to strengthen forward-looking and substantive exchanges and cooperation while the two countries manage historical issues in a stable manner amid growing tension in Northeast Asia due to North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations.

Prime Minister Abe asked President Moon to attend the trilateral summit among Korea, China and Japan if it is held in Tokyo. President Moon replied that he would gladly take part in the trilateral meeting if it is held. The President went on to say that he hoped that Prime Minister Abe would visit Korea when the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games is held next year.