'North Korea's Denuclearization is Matter of Survival for South Korea'

South Korea reiterated its call for ending Pyongyang's nuclear program.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — The end of Pyongyang’s nuclear program is a matter of survival for Seoul, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday.

"North Korea's denuclearization is needed to ensure peace in the world and Northeast Asia, but for South Korea, it is a matter of survival," Moon said at a meeting with Toshihiro Nikai, a special envoy of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.

According to Moon’s office, Nikai conveyed to the South Korean leader a letter from Abe, in which the Japanese prime minister stressed the need to continue putting pressure on North Korea and to strengthen the sanctions until Pyongyang completely abandons its nuclear program.

Moon, in his turn, said that sanctions and pressure alone were not enough to settle the issue, and stressed the need to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table, Moon’s spokesman Park Soo-hyun said, as cited by the media.

Moon explained that South Korea must keep up with sanctions and pressure, but at the same time show its northern neighbor that once Pyongyang ends the nuclear program, it will receive help from Seoul.

Earlier in June, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution to expand the scope of sanctions, travel ban and asset freeze against North Korea.

North Korea conducted its most recent ballistic missile launch on June 8, launching several short-range surface-to-ship cruise missiles off the country’s eastern coast in what was the fourth missile test over a month.