President Moon Jae-in stressed Wednesday that the alliance between South Korea and the United States serves as a key pillar in maintaining peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia.

At a dinner reception celebrating the bilateral alliance in Seoul, Moon said that the alliance served as the foundation for "South Korea's security and diplomacy" while describing it as the "linchpin of peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia."

Moon's speech was read by Suh Hoon, Seoul's national security adviser.

The event was hosted by the Korea-US Alliance Foundation and the Korea Defense Veterans Association on the eve of the two countries' annual defense ministerial talks, the Security Consultative Meeting, set for Thursday in Seoul.

The president praised the alliance for developing into a reciprocal partnership expanding across areas of economy, culture and science technology, and added that the friendship between the two nations has also deepened.

Moon added that the power of the alliance will "ceaselessly prove" how it benefits the Korean Peninsula and the world in terms of peace, and thanked the South Korean troops and US soldiers stationed here for maintaining peace. (Yonhap)