President Yoon Suk-yeol said South Korea seeks to develop the relationship with the US into a comprehensive strategic alliance at the global level and to expand its role based on their strong alliance, in talks with US academic figures on Friday.

His remarks reaffirm the agreement made in a summit with US President Joe Biden last month to upgrade the Korea-US alliance.

At the meeting with former and current members of US academia groups in the presidential office, Yoon said, “We plan to expand the role and responsibilities of South Korea based on the strong alliance.”

“Through long conversations with US President Biden, we confirmed that the development of the Korea-US alliance that we are pursuing is the same,” Yoon said, adding he is also very “satisfied.”

The president told the US groups that it is precisely “in the national interest” of South Korea to maintain and strengthen the international order based on norms of liberal democracy and a market economy.

“We look forward to your active support and help so that the Korea-US alliance can further develop based on the results of this summit,” he said.

The meeting was attended by acting US Ambassador to Korea Christopher Del Corso, the American Enterprise Institute’s senior fellow Paul Wolfowitz and Heritage Foundation founder Edwin Fuller.