President Trump’s relationship with the South Korean government is “as strong as ever,” the White House said Monday, hours after the country’s leader urged the U.S. to “lower the threshold for talks with North Korea.”
“I think our alliance is as strong as ever. I think you saw that both with the vice president’s visit and certainly over the last few days,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters on Monday, shortly after returning from Pyeongchang, where she and several Trump administration officials participated in closing ceremonies for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Sanders said there is “no daylight” between the U.S. and South Korea when it comes to both countries wanting irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
But Sanders’ remarks came on the heels of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s suggestion that Trump show less resistance to diplomatic talks with the Kim Jong Un regime.
“Recently, North Korea has shown it is open to actively engaging the United States in talks and the United States is talking about the importance of dialogue,” Moon said during a meeting in Seoul on Monday.
“There is a need for the United States to lower the threshold for talks with North Korea, and North Korea should show it is willing to denuclearize,” he added.
South Korean officials have participated in several rounds of discussions with North Korea since January, when Trump and Moon agreed to suspend joint military exercises for the duration of the Olympic games.
“They want to talk. We want to talk also, only under the right conditions,” Trump said during a White House event on Monday.
The Kim regime has faced increased pressure from the international community in recent months to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Last Friday, Trump announced that the U.S. has imposed its toughest package yet of sanctions against Pyongyang with the hope of further isolating the hermit nation.
