President Moon Jae-in holds a series of phone calls with Germany, the U.S. and Russia, at Cheong Wa Dae on Sept. 4, to talk about North Korea’s sixth nuclear weapons test one day earlier. (Cheong Wa Dae)
By Sohn JiAe
President Moon Jae-in made a series of calls to leaders in Germany, the U.S. and Russia on Sept 4 to talk about how to respond together to North Korea’s latest sixth nuclear weapons test.
President Moon stressed the need for a stronger and more practical response that the North would realize acutely, calling for active and continuous cooperation from each country. He also held fast to his fundamental principle of pursuing a peaceful solution to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.
President Moon asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel to “continue to play an active role as one of the key European Union (EU) member states in helping the U.N. Security Council to adopt additional sanctions against the North.” In response, the German leader vowed to fully cooperate on these points.
The leaders of Korea and the U.S. decided to “scrap a warhead weight limit on Korea’s missiles” in the phone conversation.
In the Korea-Russia phone call, Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned the declaration adopted at the BRICS summit currently underway in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, where leaders from Brazil, Russia, India China and South Africa denounced the North’s latest nuclear weapons test.
“We agreed that only diplomatic means can solve the nuclear weapons problem on the Korean Peninsula. Let’s talk more about this issue at the upcoming Korea-Russia summit in Vladivostok on Sept. 6,” Putin said.
jiae5853@korea.kr
