Cheong Wa Dae has reaffirmed its commitment to carrying out the Panmunjeom Declaration step-by-step, as agreed between the leaders of the two Koreas on April 27, in a National Security Council (NSC) meeting at Cheong Wa Dae on May 17. In the meeting, presided over by Director of National Security Chung Eui-yong, NSC members, including Presidential Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok, Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha and Unification Minister Cho Myoung-Gyon, agreed to implement agenda items from the declaration, such as the observation of the dismantlement of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site and hosting joint events to commemorate the previous June 15 South-North Joint Declaration.

President Moon Jae-in welcomed North Korea’s decision to make public to international journalists the dismantlement of one of its nuclear test sites in Punggye-ri, Hanggyeongbuk-do Province, between May 23 and 25, as he called it an “initial action aimed at complete denuclearization by the regime."

President Moon Jae-in met with a South Korean art troupe that performed in Pyeongyang last month and said that, “You guys have opened the door wide for inter-Korean exchanges. I will do my best to keep the door open so that the resumed exchanges between the flow of cultural exchanges will continue to go on,” at Cheong Wa Dae on May 11.