South Korean Ambassador to the United States Choi Young-jin says the time has come for South Korea to play a leading role in addressing issues related to the Korean Peninsula, including North Korea’s nuclear issue.

Choi made the remark on Wednesday during a meeting of experts on the South Korea-U.S. alliance at the Harvard Kennedy School in Massachusetts.

The ambassador said that South Korea and the U.S. have become key allies with common values and a strategic alliance through which they cooperate on contentious global issues.

Choi’s statement is drawing attention as it comes at a time when the six-way nuclear talks are at a stalemate and as a policy shift is expected both in Seoul and Washington following the presidential elections.

Choi said that in order to tackle the North’s nuclear issue, there is a need to study the essence of the North’s problems and not just its nuclear program. He added that Pyongyang needs to discard its paradigm centered on military and war, which eventually led the former Soviet Union into ruin. He said it should instead adopt a paradigm focused on economy and trade.