U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi meets with South Korea?s National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo in Seoul, South Korea August 4, 2022. Kim Min-Hee/Pool via REUTERS
SEOUL (Reuters) -U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her South Korean counterpart vowed on Thursday to support efforts to maintain a strong deterrence against North Korea and achieve its denuclearisation.
A joint statement was issued after Pelosi met South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo in Seoul, during which they expressed concerns over the North's evolving nuclear and missile threats.
Pelosi arrived in South Korea late on Wednesday following a brief stop in Taiwan, and met U.S. embassy officials in Seoul earlier on Thursday before talks with Kim and other lawmakers.
Later on Thursday, Pelosi plans to visit the Joint Security Area near the heavily fortified inter-Korean border, patrolled together by American-led U.N. Command and North Korea, a South Korean official said.
She would be the highest-level U.S. official to visit the area after former President Donald Trump, who met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un there in 2019.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin, Joori Roh and Soo-hyang Choi; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
