President Moon Talks with Trump... Reaffirms Korea-US Cooperation on 'COVID-19' and Humanitarian Aid for North Korea (Update)

Trump "General Election, President Moon Achieves a Great Victory"... President Moon "Improvement in COVID-19 Greatly Helped Election Victory"

President Moon Jae-in is speaking with U.S. President Donald Trump on the afternoon of the 18th at the Blue House residence. (Photo by Cheong Wa Dae)

[Asia Economy Reporter Son Sun-hee] On the 19th, President Moon Jae-in held a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss cooperation measures between the two countries and recent developments on the Korean Peninsula in relation to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation. This is the second phone call between the South Korean and U.S. leaders regarding COVID-19.

Kang Min-seok, the Blue House spokesperson, stated in a written briefing that "at President Trump's request, they spoke for 30 minutes starting at 10 p.m. tonight." The call between President Moon and President Trump came 25 days after their last conversation on the 24th of last month. This is the 24th call since President Moon took office.

Spokesperson Kang said, "President Trump expressed his gratitude for Korea's provision of diagnostic kits and active support to enable the export of other supplies during the COVID-19 response process, demonstrating the spirit of the Korea-U.S. alliance excellently," adding, "The two countries agreed to continue cooperation in the quarantine sector to respond to COVID-19."

Furthermore, the two leaders also discussed recent developments in North Korea. President Moon highly praised President Trump's active engagement with North Korea for peace efforts on the Korean Peninsula, and President Trump said this was natural and expressed his intention to continue. In particular, Spokesperson Kang stated that President Moon and President Trump reaffirmed the principle of 'humanitarian aid to North Korea' in relation to COVID-19.

President Moon said, "Although the number of domestic COVID-19 confirmed cases has dropped to the teens over the past two days and the situation has improved, we are still deliberating whether to ease social distancing," adding, "I hope the increase in COVID-19 cases in the U.S. will subside soon under President Trump's strong leadership so that he can focus on economic reconstruction, which he is deeply concerned about."

President Trump congratulated Korea on successfully conducting the April 15 general election, especially saying, "President Moon achieved a great victory," and evaluated that "Korea's response has become the best model while many countries around the world are struggling with COVID-19."

In response, President Moon expressed his gratitude and said, "The recent significant decrease in COVID-19 confirmed cases and the improved situation greatly contributed to the election victory," according to Spokesperson Kang.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.