Cho Tae-yeol said, "We should make efforts to denuclearize North Korea and block military aid to Russia."

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol said the two countries should simultaneously make efforts to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and supporting Russia's military.

In a video congratulatory speech for the South Korea-U.S. Strategic Forum held at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on the 18th, Cho said, "North Korea's dispatch of troops to Russia directly threatens Europe and destabilizes the world beyond Northeast Asia."

Cho stressed that any attempt to stop the war in Ukraine would be insufficient without addressing North Korea's illegal aid to Russia and that any attempt to stop North Korea's aid to Russia would be incomplete without efforts to denuclearize the country.

He also said that deepening cooperation between Korea, the U.S. and Japan and promoting cooperation between countries similar to those in Asia and Europe through NATO or the G7 will play a key role in solving complex crises around the world.

Cho said there are some concerns about the impact of the U.S. presidential election on allies, but he can confidently say that the South Korea-U.S. alliance will continue to develop and reach the highest level of cooperation.

He also explained that the Yoon Suk Yeol government's willingness to fulfill its role and responsibility to match Korea's national power and status is in line with Trump's expectation that allies should do their part.

Cho stressed that only three countries - Israel, Greece and Poland - spend more on defense than South Korea's gross domestic product and that South Korea has the largest investment in the U.S.