Top foreign policy officials from Seoul and Washington talked about denuclearization over the phone on Friday, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

In a first phone call as counterparts, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chung Eui-yong — South Korea’s newly appointed foreign minister — vowed to “closely coordinate for a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” a MOFA press release stated.

Ned Price, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said that Blinken stressed the “importance of continued U.S.-Republic of Korea-Japan cooperation” on the call, as well as President Joe Biden’s “commitment to strengthening