South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called on Mongolia to play a greater role in facilitating dialogue with North Korea, saying the country’s longstanding diplomatic ties across the region make it well positioned to help revive the stalled diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula.

In an interview published Thursday by Mongolia’s state-owned Montsame news agency, Lee highlighted Ulaanbaatar’s significance as a “unique” regional partner that maintains friendly relations with North Korea while also sharing democratic and free-market values with South Korea. 

Lee, who arrived in Mongolia on Thursday for a three-day state visit, added that the country’s balanced relations with China,