Ambassador Lee Soo-hyuk to the US. [연합뉴스] 〈Copyright (c) Yonhap News, Unauthorized Reprint-Redistribution Prohibited〉
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Ambassador Lee Soo-hyuk said on the 15th (local time) that when the US administration is launched in January of next year, the immediate task is to promote the Korea-US summit as soon as possible.
Ambassador Lee said at a video conference with the Washington correspondent, “The most important task in the future regarding the direction of diplomacy with the US is to hold a summit meeting as soon as possible after the launch of the new administration next year to further strengthen the ROK-US alliance, “It’s about setting a big direction.”
In the mid to long term, Ambassador Lee pointed out the task of analyzing the US policy toward China and finding a countermeasure for Korea. He said, “We will look for ways to respond by closely analyzing the direction of the US policy in China and the movement to restore the liberal multilateral order.”
Ambassador Lee expressed anticipation, saying, “The Biden administration is likely to return to diplomacy in an orthodox way that we are familiar with.” If you look at Biden’s diplomatic and defense field leaders, you can see that experts are being hired. He said they value the alliance and have a deep understanding of the Korean Peninsula.
Biden appointed former Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blingen as Secretary of State, former U.S. Army Central Commander Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defense, and former Vice President Jake Sullivan as National Security Advisor at the White House.
Ambassador Lee said that Biden’s transition committee has been very cautious in dialogue with foreign governments, and that direct contact with the transition committee is still difficult. As the Biden Transition Committee receives business briefings from each department of the Donald Trump administration for the takeover and takeover of the regime, he said that if an opinion needs to be expressed, it will go through the current administration.
Immediately after the establishment of the Biden administration, it is known that people in the vicinity are in line with the Biden Transition Committee because they were not able to directly contact the Biden Transition Committee regarding ROK-US cooperation to manage pending issues such as the possibility of North Korean provocation.
Ambassador Lee said, “There were difficulties this year with the issue of the Korean peninsula and the issues of the ROK-US alliance,” he said. “The biggest regret is that the efforts to resume dialogue with North Korea have not come to fruition.”
He said, “The reason that North Korea did not return to dialogue even though the ROK and the United States made efforts in various ways, although the internal situation and strategic considerations in North Korea worked in combination, but the corona situation has had a big impact.”
Ambassador Lee said that the failure to negotiate the ROK-US defense cost share remains a heavy task. He also pointed out that next year’s task is to further deepen the health cooperation between Korea and the United States in line with the development trend of the Corona 19 vaccine and treatment.
Washington = Correspondent Park Hyun-young [email protected]
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