[단독] Even though I knew Kang Kyung-hwa … Koons, a close friend of Biden’s, refers to North Korea: “ No. ”

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa, who is currently on a business trip to the United States, met with Senator Chris Koons, Assistant to the President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, on the 10th (local time) , and mentioned that he emphasized the urgency of North Korea’s nuclear issue. It did not appear.

On the same day, Minister Kang met with correspondents at the Washington DC embassy in Washington DC and revealed that he had met with Senators Chris Koons and Chris Murphy of the Democratic Party.

Between them, given that Congressman Koons is being widely discussed as secretary of state in the first cabinet of the Biden administration, what kind of dialogue and relationship between the two parties has come to the fore.

First, if you look at the content of the meeting with correspondents, Minister Kang explained that the Korean government’s firm commitment to promoting the peace process on the Korean Peninsula was explained and diplomatic efforts were emphasized. Minister Kang added, “As the Democratic Party administration has been cooperating and cooperating closely with the Korean government for peace on the Korean peninsula, we hope to be able to reconcile between the ROK and the United States as soon as possible after the inauguration of the Biden administration. ”

However, when looking at the meeting that Congressman Koons posted on his Twitter after an interview with Minister Kang, North Korea and its nuclear weapons were not directly mentioned. Congressman Koons said: “I had excellent discussions with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on ways to deal with Corona 19.” “The alliance between the United States and South Korea will be strong as they share the same values.”

Unlike Minister Kang’s explanation of the North Korean nuclear problem and the need for a diplomatic approach to solve it, Congressman Koons only emphasized the importance of the bilateral alliance. This suggests that it was onerous for Congressman Kuns to hold a single meeting with Minister Kang on the North Korean issue, a key Biden-elect diplomatic issue, along with the Iran and Cuba issues. He even mentioned Corona 19’s mutual cooperation as a priority before the bilateral alliance issue.

Rather, there is also an analysis that provides an effective foundation for the Moon Jae-in administration’s additional focus on Biden-elect in the future.

From the perspective of the South Korean government, it is necessary to maintain this momentum with the Biden administration, as it has held a historic Panmunjom trilateral meeting with North Korea in close cooperation with the Trump administration.

On the other hand, according to the cautious response of Congressman Koons, who did not mention anything about North Korea, the agenda of “ seeking dialogue with North Korea ” is still in the “ distant steps ” of interests and priorities. of Biden-elect and his diplomatic and security advisory group known to have more than 2,000 people. You can guess that there is. Therefore, it seems necessary for the Moon Jae-in administration to step up the momentum of cooperation with the Biden administration from the soft topic of Corona 19 cooperation, as in the tweet from Congressman Koons, who showed an active interest in mutual cooperation related to Corona 19.

On the North Korean nuclear issue, we must not rush to ‘performanceism’ and save the military fire of the ROK-US alliance in the Corona 19 cooperation. A diplomat said: “In the case of current President Trump, we are proving more than Korea “, instead of remarking that Korea is recognized as a rival, unfortunately, the result of cooperation between the health authorities of the two countries. It could not be concluded, ”he said.

On the contrary, to show ‘political clarity’ with the Trump administration, Biden made the response to Corona 19 a top priority, and recently launched an advisory committee with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as Gu Shim-jung.

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