By Lee Hana

President Moon Jae-in held a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in New York on Sept. 21. The two leaders reaffirmed their goal to achieve denuclearization of North Korea in a peaceful manner.

Condemning Pyongyang's sixth nuclear test and ballistic missile launches over Japan's northern islands, they emphasized the importance of complying with and carrying out U.N. Security Council resolutions No.s 2371 and 2375.

"North Korea's latest provocation was utterly deplorable, and enraged us all, but the U.S. responded firmly and I'm pleased that our alliance remained resilient against the current state of affairs. You gave a speech with a strong message at the U.N. General Assembly, and I'm confident that this kind of strength will help to change North Korea," said Moon.

"As you probably know, we've had a few discussions over the past number of months, and I think we're making a lot of headway in a lot of different ways," said Trump. "We are also on a very friendly basis working on trade and trade agreements," he added.

Finally, the two leaders agreed that it's important to maintain the upper hand against Pyongyang in terms of military force, and decided to strengthen the Korea-U.S. combined defense readiness by developing military assets. They also agreed to rotate the allocation of the U.S.'s strategic military assets in Korea and its neighboring regions.

hlee10@korea.kr