With his tour of Central Asia drawing to a close,... President Moon Jae-in on Monday put the focus on North Korea's denuclearization during his talks with Kazazh leaders in Kazakhstan.
He said South Korea draws great inspiration from Kazakhstan's own experience of denuclearization, in which it gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for financial aid.
Shin Se-min reports.
President Moon Jae-in used the backdrop of an affluent Kazakhstan to press home his point that a non-nuclear North Korea would mean a better life for the North Korean people.
Speaking with the founder of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, President Moon said North Korea should follow Kazakhstan's lead and choose economic prosperity over nuclear weapons.
Touching upon Kazakhstan's GDP, which accounts for around 70-percent of the combined GDP of Central Asia,... President Moon said the country was able to achieve that because it voluntarily handed over its weapons.
"Kazakhstan achieved economic growth through voluntary denuclearization. That in itself is a great inspiration as we attempt to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula."
Kazakhstan also gave its full backing to President Moon's denuclearization drive.
Nazarbayev told President Moon that delaying the denuclearization process is only going to make things more difficult,... and pledged to declare his support on the international stage, if necessary.
Earlier, during a separate meeting with Kazakhstan's current president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President Moon sought support for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula,... to which Tokayev responded that his country will continue to fully back peace in any way possible.
Kazakhstan once held the world's fourth-largest nuclear stockpiles with over 14-hundred warheads,... but relinquished all of its Soviet-era weapons by mid-1995,... and absorbed the policy of non-proliferation.
"Throughout his Central Asian tour,... the president has been securing support from key partners of his New Northern Policy. But realizing diplomatic and economic benefits with these nations may take some time as it is closely linked with the speed of denuclearization talks.
Shin Se-min, Arirang News, Nur-sultan."