South Korea and the United States held an inaugural meeting of their working group on coordinating North Korea's denuclearization in Washington on Tuesday.

The Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the two sides reaffirmed the importance of the South Korea-U.S. alliance as a core pillar of peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the region.

The ministry said that the working group led by Lee Do-hoon, South Korea’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, and his U.S. counterpart Stephen Biegun held in-depth discussions on their efforts for the North's denuclearization, the implementation of UN sanctions and inter-Korean cooperation.

It said they also agreed to continue their close coordination and cooperation on an increasingly systemic and regular basis.