{"id":135565,"date":"2026-08-28T14:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T14:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/135565\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T14:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T14:56:15","slug":"seoul-will-back-us-north-korea-talks-but-guard-against-being-sidelined-national-security-adviser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/135565\/","title":{"rendered":"Seoul will back US-North Korea talks, but guard against being sidelined: national security adviser"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"National National Security Advisor Wi Sung-lac (left) is seen at the presidential senior secretaries’ meeting in Seoul held on Aug. 20. (Yonhap) <\/p>\n

South Korea will support efforts to restart dialogue between the United States and North Korea while ensuring that Seoul is not sidelined and that its security posture is not weakened in the process, National security adviser Wi Sung-lac said Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump has recently scaled back South Korea-US combined exercises and field training exercises, while continuing to express his willingness to engage with North Korea,\u201d Wi said, referring to US President Donald Trump’s recent comments concerning North Korea.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, Trump has highlighted his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and expressed willingness to hold talks directly with Kim.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a party directly concerned with peace on the Korean Peninsula and as a pacemaker, we will support trust-building between North Korea and the United States and the resumption of dialogue so that President Trump\u2019s efforts can lead to renewed US-North Korea talks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wi, however, said Seoul would take a \u201cmultidimensional approach\u201d to prepare for potential concerns surrounding any resumption of negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.<\/p>\n

One priority would be to coordinate with the US to ensure that renewed dialogue produces \u201csubstantive progress\u201d on the North Korean nuclear issue alongside efforts to establish a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, another point we need to keep in mind is ensuring that our security posture is not weakened and that South Korea is not bypassed in the process,\u201d Wi said.<\/p>\n

His remarks underscore Seoul\u2019s attempt to balance support for Trump\u2019s outreach to Pyongyang with concerns that direct negotiations between the US and North Korea could leave South Korea with diminished influence over issues directly affecting its security.<\/p>\n

Wi said close policy coordination and communication between Seoul and Washington would be particularly important in managing such risks.<\/p>\n

The two allies are currently dealing with a range of issues, including investment, corporate matters involving Coupang, security and intelligence cooperation and the transfer of wartime operational control, or OPCON, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is making efforts to closely coordinate and manage these issues in order to strengthen the framework of cooperation between South Korea and the United States,\u201d Wi said.<\/p>\n

He added that Seoul and Washington have maintained close communication at various levels, including a phone call between their foreign ministers on Aug. 24.<\/p>\n

cheesuk@heraldcorp.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National Security Advisor Wi Sung-lac (left) is seen at the presidential senior secretaries’ meeting in Seoul held on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8399,19707,74,60238,141,31,64448,5280,344,34,142,68799,13713,129,9680],"class_list":["post-135565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-north-korea","tag-denuclearization","tag-disarmament","tag-donald-trump","tag-drills","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-korea","tag-korea-passing","tag-korean-peninsula","tag-military","tag-north-korea","tag-nuclear","tag-nuke","tag-peace","tag-pyongyang","tag-summit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}