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Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Coveney TD has today welcomed the inter-Korean summit taking place on 27 April between President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and Kim Jong-un of North Korea, the first such meeting between the leaders of North and South Korea to be held in 11 years.

The Tánaiste said:

“Ireland strongly welcomes the summit meeting taking place this week between North and South Korea, and hopes that progress will be achieved towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Every opportunity for dialogue and diplomatic solutions in this context should be grasped. The prospect of direct talks between the DPRK and the United States is also very encouraging.

“The achievement and maintenance of a world without nuclear weapons has been and remains a driving force of Ireland’s foreign policy. We support all genuine steps towards progress on nuclear disarmament. We continue to urge the DPRK to abide by its obligations under relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, and to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. We urge it to abandon all nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner.”