President Yoon: “Denuclearization of N. Korea must be achieved.”

[Anchor]

President Yoon Suk-yeol attended the East Asia Summit, where leaders from eighteen countries in the Indo-Pacific region gathered as the final schedule of his Southeast Asia tour.

President Yoon criticized North Korea's nuclear development and human rights issues, warning that military cooperation between North Korea and Russia is a direct challenge to UN Security Council resolutions.

Our reporter Lee Hyun-jun has the details.

[Report]

The East Asia Summit is the highest-level strategic forum in the Indo-Pacific region.

Eighteen countries participated, including South Korea, Japan, China, ASEAN, the United States, Russia, India, and Australia.

President Yoon Suk-yeol took this opportunity to firmly criticize North Korea's nuclear development and military cooperation with Russia.

He stated that North Korea, which oppresses its people for the sake of regime survival and threatens its own ethnic group with nuclear weapons, will endanger regional peace, emphasizing that the denuclearization of North Korea must be achieved.

He also pointed out that the illegal military cooperation between North Korea and Russia is prolonging the war in Ukraine and is a direct challenge to UN Security Council resolutions.

[Kim Tae-hyo/First Deputy Director of National Security Office/Yesterday: "We will urge the international community to strengthen solidarity for a united response to military cooperation between Russia and North Korea."]

President Yoon also requested support for the vision of a free and unified Korean Peninsula as part of the August 15 unification doctrine.

He called for continued international attention to the human rights issues in North Korea, including the abduction of South Koreans and the issue of Korean War prisoners.

Additionally, President Yoon held a bilateral meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to discuss cooperation in key security areas such as defense and defense industry.

After completing his tour of three Southeast Asian countries, President Yoon plans to resume diplomatic activities, including a South Korea-U.S.-Japan summit, as soon as the U.S. presidential election concludes next month.

Lee Hyun-jun, KBS News, Vientiane, Laos.