By Kim Young Deok and Lee Hana

President Moon Jae-in on June 16 returned home after an 8-day trip to Finland, Sweden and Norway, pledging to ensure that the results of his Northern European tour invigorate the economy and advance peace on the Korean Peninsula. 

On each stop of his tour, he stressed his government's intent to bring peace to the peninsula.

On June 10, President Moon and his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto held a summit on the inter-Korean peace process, with the Korean leader later saying in a joint news conference that "(he) hopes the momentum for dialogue continues so that the two Koreas and the U.S. and North Korea can resume talks." 

In a June 12 speech at the Oslo Forum, President Moon highlighted the significance of last year's North Korea-U.S. summit in Singapore, saying "the two sides agreed to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and agreed on this as a major rule of their new relationship."

He also delivered on June 14 a message of peace to North Korea in a speech to the Swedish parliament. Stressing the importance of trust between the people of the two Koreas, the world and trust in conversation, he said, "North Korea needs to show the international community that it's committed to complete denuclearization and the establishment of a peace regime. (South) Korea will continue to work with North Korea to regain the trust of the international community."
 
The presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae announced that Korea reviewed a combined 38 agreements signed with Finland, Sweden and Norway in business and science and technology. Around 22 of them were in areas such as smart shipping, Arctic affairs, information and communications technology, the hydrogen economy and innovation. 

Senior Presidential Secretary for Economic Affairs Yoon Jong-won said, "Through this trip, we were able to establish cooperative partnerships with Finland, Sweden and Norway, our partners in inclusive and innovative growth."

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