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, Russia and other regional powers have made it an important contributor to peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

“Our government seeks to end the era of hostility and confrontation between South and North Korea and to build a new era of peaceful coexistence and shared growth on the Korean Peninsula,” Lee reportedly said.

To this end, Seoul intends to pursue expanded inter-Korean exchanges, normalize relations with Pyongyang and pursue a phased denuclearization approach, the South Korean president added.

With U.S.-DPRK and inter-Korean dialogue at a standstill, Lee called on the international community to preserve channels of communication with Pyongyang and support platforms for discussing regional peace.

In particular, he said Mongolia could play a significant role as a trusted intermediary.

“I hope that Mongolia, drawing on the diplomatic trust it has built … will contribute even more to peace and stability — not only on the Korean Peninsula but across Northeast Asia as a whole,” Lee said.

Mongolia has long been a relatively neutral diplomatic actor in Northeast Asia, hosting multilateral security discussions and maintaining working relations with countries that often have strained ties with one another, including North Korea, South Korea, the U.S., China and Russia.

Mongolia became only the third country after China and Russia to rotate embassy staff in the DPRK in Jan. 2024, after North Korea began easing pandemic-related border restrictions.

North Korean delegations have also made regular visits to Mongolia for bilateral and multilateral discussions since 2024, underscoring Ulaanbaatar’s importance as a neutral venue for engagement with the DPRK.

However, Mongolia’s willingness to host North Koreans has also sparked concern that it may be enabling the DPRK’s sanctions evasion, including through a restaurant with suspected ties to Pyongyang that was found to be operational last year.

Lee’s visit has also led to speculation about his possible intervention in the case of a North Korean interpreter who reportedly sought asylum at the South Korean Embassy in Ulaanbaatar last year.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry told NK News that it cannot confirm details about the case.

Published Date:2026-07-10