United States Ambassador Harry Harris stressed the allies’s synchronization in dealings with North Korea‘s nuclear issues in a meeting with Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon on Monday.

“I think it is important that we work together in synchronization,” Harris, who made a courtesy call on Cho after taking office on July 7, said ahead of the meeting with Cho. 

“The Korea-US alliance has brought us here to this point that we are at today and our continued synchronization will ensure the best outcome possible for the Korean Peninsula,” he added.

Cho welcomed the former chief of the US Pacific Command to his new post and reaffirmed South Korea-US cooperation on North Korea’s nuclear issues.

“The process of resolving the North’s nuclear issues through dialogue has already started, but it yet remains at a beginning stage -- there is still a long road ahead and many problems to resolve,” Cho said.

The point man on inter-Korean relations also highlighted cooperation between Seoul and Washington governments and asked for solid support from the new ambassador, to which Harris responded, “You will have it.”

Shortly after the landmark summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore in June, Harris had sided with Trump on hitting a pause on the South Korea-US joint military exercises. But he added that sanctions on North Korea should remain in place, while denuclearization talks continue.

Harris assumed the ambassadorial post in Seoul about 1 1/2 years after his predecessor Mark Lippert left Seoul in January last year. His meeting with Cho closely follows his meeting with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)