South Korean President Moon Jae-in, in a speech delivered on Tuesday from the podium of the United Nations in New York, urged for the "quick resumption" of the stalled talks since 2019 between North Korea and the United States regarding Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The call made by the South Korean President on the first day of the UN General Assembly meetings comes a week after Pyongyang conducted a ballistic missile test, to which Seoul responded immediately with a similar test.
In his address at the annual UN General Assembly session, Moon stated, "I call for the swift resumption of dialogue between the two Koreas and between the United States and North Korea." He expressed "hope that the power of dialogue and cooperation capable of creating peace" will materialize on the Korean Peninsula.
On September 15, Seoul conducted a successful test launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, becoming the seventh country in the world to possess this technology. This test followed hours after North Korea, a nuclear-armed state, launched two ballistic missiles towards the sea. At that time, Washington condemned North Korea's missile test but did not condemn Seoul's, prompting Pyongyang to accuse the U.S. of "double standards."
South Korea is not subject to decisions preventing it from conducting tests on the launch of ballistic missiles, unlike North Korea, which is under strict sanctions, particularly since 2017, as the international community seeks to curb its ballistic and nuclear weapons programs. Nuclear talks between North Korea and the United States have been stalled since the collapse of a summit held in Hanoi in 2019 between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and then U.S. President Donald Trump, regarding the concessions required from Pyongyang in exchange for easing sanctions.
