Moon vows close cooperation with Biden for Korea peace process

SEOUL, Jan. 21 (Yonhap) -- President Moon Jae-in pledged Thursday to maintain close partnerships with the new U.S. administration, chairing a rare plenary session of the National Security Council (NSC) hours after Joe Biden's inauguration. Moon also said his government will make utmost efforts to restart dialogue and cooperation with North Korea. He stressed that the peace process is a must, not an option, and called on his national security team to do its best to end a longstanding stalemate in Washington-Pyongyang talks and inter-Korean dialogue at an early date. He was speaking in front of pool reporters at the outset of the session held at Cheong Wa Dae. It was the first known NSC meeting chaired by Moon in nearly two years. He convened the previous one to discuss a strategy following the no-deal Hanoi summit between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea in late February 2019. lcd@yna.co.kr (END)