South Korea will uphold traditional alliance with the United States and continue cooperation to develop bilateral relationship regardless of who wins the presidential election, the presidential office said as it worked on various scenarios to the unprecedentedly equivocal vote results.

The presidential office held a National Security Council (NSC) meeting chaired by national security director Suh Hoon on Thursday to assess the U.S. presidential election developments and examine possible impacts the election results would have on this country.

President Moon Jae-in was briefed by the outcome at the following meeting of related ministers. “The government will continue to cooperate to strengthen the Korea-U.S. alliance no matter what the outcome of the presidential election in the U.S.,” presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok said in the briefing. He stressed that Korea will actively cooperate with the incoming U.S. administration to achieve denuclearization and peace of the Korean peninsula and keep the tradition of maintaining close communication with all of the U.S. administrations.

Suh also said the previous day that the consistent goal of the Korean government is the “complete denuclearization of North Korea” whether it is a Republican or Democratic administration in the U.S. He stressed that the government has the same goal but prepared a different approach depending on who leads the next U.S. administration.

Korea’s foreign minister Kang Kyung-hwa will visit the U.S. from next Sunday to Wednesday to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “They will reaffirm the strong Korea-U.S. alliance and have a deep discussion to explore ways to achieve the denuclearization and peace regime on the Korean Peninsula and extend cooperation to strengthen the bilateral alliance,” the foreign ministry said.

She will be accompanied by Lee Do-hoon, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, who will meet with Stephen Biegun, the deputy secretary of state.

By Lim Sung-hyun, Ahn Jung-hoon and Choi Mira

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