hankyoreh

First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo of South Korea (left) and acting US Ambassador to South Korea Kevin Kim attend the first Korea-US Diplomacy Forum, held at Lotte Hotel Seoul on Nov. 20, 2025. (Yonhap)

The acting US ambassador to South Korea voiced concerns in a recent meeting with senior foreign affairs and national security officials that President Lee Jae Myung’s use of the phrase “Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons” instead of “denuclearization” could send the wrong message to North Korea, the Hankyoreh learned on Tuesday.

A source familiar with the situation among foreign affairs officials told the Hankyoreh that during a meeting with senior South Korean government officials, acting Ambassador Kevin Kim “expressed the view that the use of the phrase ‘Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons’ instead of ‘denuclearization’ could send the wrong signal” to North Korea.

The same source quoted Kim as asking why Lee was “speaking ambiguously” about a “nuclear-free” peninsula when he should “just say ‘[North Korean] denuclearization.’”

Kim has recently held successive meetings with South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun, Minister of Unification Chung Dong-young, and Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back. While speaking to reporters after a closed-door meeting on Monday with the first vice minister of foreign affairs, Park Yoon-joo, Kim said the two had discussed ways for both sides to coordinate effectively on numerous issues, including ones relating to North Korea, and that their presidents had reaffirmed their promise to achieve North Korea’s complete denuclearization at a recent bilateral summit.

Lee’s first use of the term “Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons” came in a celebratory address for Liberation Day on Aug. 15. At the time, he used the phrase alongside “denuclearization.”

But at a Dec. 2 meeting for the launch of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council, he omitted the term “denuclearization” in a message stressing his plans to “make ongoing efforts to end the state of war on the Korean Peninsula, pursuing a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and working to establish a robust peace.”

This is not the first time Washington has voiced concerns over Seoul’s policies toward North Korea. Multiple sources in the administration said that the US had expressed concerns recently about Chung’s remarks on “adjustments” to bilateral military exercises, suggesting the two sides should coordinate beforehand on matters pertaining to North Korea policy.

As a reflection of these currents, the two sides recently agreed to hold regular policy coordination meetings to address differences concerning North Korea policy.

“There have been working-level discussions for several months on ideas for holding regular meetings for policy coordination between South Korea and the US,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said.

“We expect to discuss all areas of North Korea policy in these meetings, including measures for engagement with the North,” they added.

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter

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