President Moon Jae-in has received U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, who has been in South Korea since Wednesday, in a courtesy call. 

Presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee in a written briefing on Friday said Moon and Haines exchanged broad and in-depth discussions on pending issues between South Korea and the U.S. as well as the situation on the Korean Peninsula. 

According to the spokesperson, they also agreed on the need to further strengthen the Seoul-Washington alliance. 

Moon said the two countries are allies not only on the security front but also on universal values such as democracy, human rights and peace, adding he hopes the alliance will deepen and their bilateral cooperation in intelligence will further develop under her term. 

Haines also assessed the bilateral alliance covers values beyond security. 

During the meeting, held ahead of Moon’s slated summit with U.S. President Joe Biden next Friday, the two sides were also believed to have discussed the Biden administration’s North Korea policy and measures to resume denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang.

Director of National Security Suh Hoon and Director of National Intelligence Service Park Jie-won were said to have joined the meeting, while Haines and Park reportedly held a separate one-on-one meeting to discuss North Korea and other issues.