By Sohn JiAe
Photos = Cheong Wa Dae

President Moon Jae-in invited Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to Cheong Wa Dae on Nov. 2 to talk about ways to cooperate on issues that include the North Korean nuclear weapons programs and counterterrorism.

When President Moon asked the NATO leader about his visit to the Panmunjeom Truce Village and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), Stoltenberg said, “Meeting a good number of soldiers there, I found that they're working on peace, not just for Korea, but for the world as a whole. On behalf of all NATO members, I’d like to thank you all.”

President Moon said, “I’m so grateful for NATO issuing a statement immediately after Pyongyang’s nuclear missile tests and for supporting the Korean government’s stance against that regime. I’m also thankful to NATO for calling out that the use of military force could be dangerous and for stressing that North Korean issues should be addressed in a peaceful manner.”

“We appreciate NATO’s role in achieving peace across Europe by means of strong deterrence. Our nation’s ties with NATO go back to the Korean War when NATO member states dispatched soldiers and offered aid,” the president said. “Hopefully, these Korea-NATO ties will become stronger across all military issues and, also, global ones, as true partners.”



The NATO secretary general said, “The North’s nuclear weapons and missiles are posing a grave threat to NATO members, and the global community must join forces to respond to this threat.”

"Not only diplomatic and political pressure, but also economic sanctions should be placed on the regime," he stressed. “Such stronger measures are needed to resolve North Korean issues peacefully and politically, not by the use of force. NATO and the international community support President Moon’s effective and predictable approach to releasing tensions on the Korean Peninsula,” he added.

jiae5853@korea.kr