South Korea's top diplomat has asked for continued support from US congressional leaders for efforts to resolve issues related to the Korean Peninsula, ranging from security to trade and economic cooperation between the allies, the foreign ministry said Friday.

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha is in Washington on a three-day trip during which she is scheduled to meet US officials, including Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, to mostly discuss details of the allies' summits with North Korea.

South Korea is preparing to hold a summit with the North in late April. Last week, US President Donald Trump accepted an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to a summit and proposed to hold talks before the end of May.


In a meeting with congressional leaders on Thursday (local time), Kang shared the outcome of recent trips to Pyongyang by South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoys, which led to a summit agreement between the two Koreas, the ministry said.

Kang vowed to maintain close coordination with the US to facilitate the establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula by making the back-to-back summits with the North a success. She also asked for their continued interest in and support for efforts to resolve issues facing Korea.

In response, they said that the watertight alliance between South Korea and the US has led to a "positive" change and expressed hope that an unwavering principle of denuclearization and continued sanctions and pressure will help find a breakthrough in building peace on the peninsula, the ministry said.

The congressional leaders included House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI); Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia.

Touching on trade and economic issues, Kang hoped that the ongoing negotiations between the two countries to revise their five-year-old free trade agreement will be resolved on a "mutually beneficial" basis.

However, she voiced concerns that the US' recent imposition of heavy taxes on imported steel products could have a negative impact on the allies' relations, asking for their "active" cooperation to exclude South Korea from the list of countries subject to the action, the ministry said.(Yonhap)