Anchor: President Moon Jae-in spoke on the phone with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the PyeongChang Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games as well as Korean Peninsula affairs. Trump also held phone talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and agreed to strengthen pressure against the North. 
Kim In-kyung has more.  

Report: President Moon Jae-in held his first phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump in a month late Friday to discuss close cooperation on the success of the PyeongChang Olympics and Paralympics. 

Senior presidential press secretary Yoon Young-chan said Saturday that during the 30-minute conversation, Moon expressed hope that the momentum on improving inter-Korean dialogue spurred by the Olympics will continue to help build peace on the Korean Peninsula. 

He also said he hoped the visit to South Korea by Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the U.S. delegation to the Olympics, would help the peace-building process.

Moon assessed that Trump's consistent and principle-based policies on Korean Peninsula affairs greatly contributed to fostering an atmosphere for a peaceful Olympics, including the participation of North Korea at the games.

While stressing that he's 100 percent with South Korea, Trump called on the need to ease the trade imbalance between the two nations. Moon said that Seoul will sincerely respond to ongoing negotiations aimed at revising the bilateral free trade agreement.

Meanwhile, the White House revealed that the U.S. leader also spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the phone on Friday.

The two heads of state reportedly agreed on the need to ramp up the international community's maximum pressure campaign on Pyongyang to induce the regime to give up its nuclear weapons.

Trump and Abe also discussed ways to strengthen Japan's self-defense capabilities, including a broader missile defense system, and the relocation of a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa Prefecture.

Trump met with eight North Korean defectors at the White House on Friday. He told the defectors that inter-Korean dialogue over the Olympics is a good thing, but no one knows what will happen after that. The attendees included Ji Seong-ho, who had been among the president's guests of honor at his State of Union address to Congress this week.
Kim In-kyung, KBS World Radio News.