President Moon Jae-in shakes hands with Italian President Sergio Mattarella with first lady Kim Jung-sook and Mattarella's daughter Laura standing next to them during a welcoming ceremony for Moon at the presidential palace in Rome, Wednesday. Moon later had a summit with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, at which they agreed to develop Korea-Italy relations into a strategic partnership. Yonhap

By Kim Yoo-chul

ROME ― Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte expressed full support for President Moon Jae-in's drive for complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID) of North Korea.

"Prime Minister Conte expressed full support for the diplomatic initiatives undertaken by President Moon through the three inter-Korean summits to advance inter-Korean relations, and achieve complete denuclearization and permanent peace in the Korean Peninsula. The two leaders shared the view that denuclearization must be achieved in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner," Conte said in a joint press statement after the two leaders' summit in Rome, late Wednesday (KST).

Moon, who is on a nine-day European trip, paid an "official visit" to Italy from Oct. 16 to today. He will later attend an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) to be held in Brussels, Belgium.

Moon preaches Korean peace at Vatican 2018-10-18 09:44  |  Foreign Affairs Moon to ask Europe to ease sanctions on NK 2018-10-17 17:16  |  North Korea
The President met President Sergio Mattarella and engaged in an in-depth discussion on matters of mutual interest including bilateral relations.

CVID is the shared objective of South Korea's allies and they are closely coordinating their approach to the issue amid the North's lack of clarity over specific steps it is making for nuclear disarmament.

The joint statement said South Korea and Italy agreed to elevate their "bilateral relationship" to a "strategic partnership." Under the agreement, the two countries will expand the ties in the defense, culture and economic sectors.

"The two Koreas also underlined the importance of promoting cooperation in innovative industries, involving basic science, ICT, nano-science, robotics, energy, marine science and biotechnology, to produce high-value products and services and high-quality jobs," the statement continued.

The two leaders expressed concern about the looming threat of protectionism in the world and affirmed their strong support for free, fair and rules-based trade and multilateralism.

"In this regard, South Korea and Italy acknowledged the role of the existing Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between South Korea and the European Union. As the leaders agreed that climate change is posing an imminent challenge for humanity, the two will jointly tackle this by applying measures to reduce carbon emission and urging an early implementation of the Paris Agreement," said the statement.