President Lee Jae-myung has wrapped up an overseas schedule of five days and three nights, including attendance at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit and a state visit to Mongolia.
Moving beyond simple arms exports, President Lee proposed a "Defense Industry Partnership 2.0" to participate in NATO's supply chain and joint development framework, launching in earnest the building of a "defense solidarity" with NATO. In Mongolia, he secured a joint declaration on a "Korea-Mongolia Golden Age" aimed at elevating the level of economic cooperation. Even amid a schedule weighted toward defense, economics, and resource diplomacy, President Lee is said to have specifically requested that the Mongolia visit be realized without fail during this trip.
While no country is diplomatically unimportant, a Korean president's state visit to Mongolia is the first in 15 years. Given that Mongolia is not classified among the top-priority countries for Korean diplomacy in terms of trade volume or personnel exchange, unlike the United States, China, Japan, or the European Union (EU), interpretations suggest that this visit carried significance beyond simple economic cooperation.
Korea-Mongolia Joint Declaration Reflects 'Peace and Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula'
Indeed, the joint declaration issued by President Lee and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh gave weight to the issue of peace and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula no less than to economic cooperation. The two leaders stated, "As parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the two countries express their support for the three pillars of the NPT: non-proliferation, disarmament, and peaceful use." They also noted in the declaration that "peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula hold important significance in promoting the peace, stability, and security of all of Northeast Asia," and that "Korea explained its policy of peaceful coexistence and joint growth on the Korean Peninsula, including exchange, normalization of relations, and phased denuclearization."
This could be called the so-called "Ulaanbaatar Declaration," and there is a background behind President Lee's choice of Mongolia as an axis for dialogue with North Korea. Mongolia is one of the countries North Korea has trusted the longest. Immediately after the North Korean regime was established in 1948, Mongolia became the second country in the world after the Soviet Union to recognize North Korea and establish diplomatic relations. During the Korean War, it brought North Korean war orphans to Ulaanbaatar and cared for them directly, and it also provided 10,000 horses for postwar reconstruction.
President Kim Il-sung visited Mongolia twice, in 1956 and 1988, which was unusual for North Korea. The 1988 visit, just before the collapse of the socialist bloc, is regarded as a symbolic scene demonstrating how much North Korea trusted Mongolia.
Relations between the two countries continued even after Mongolia's democratization. Mongolia maintained diplomatic relations with North Korea even after establishing ties with South Korea, and in 2013, then-President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj visited Pyongyang and held talks with the North Korean leadership.
Mongolia, Second Only to the Soviet Union to Establish Ties with North Korea
Cared for North Korean War Orphans in Ulaanbaatar After the Korean War
Mongolian Leader Visited Pyongyang Even After Mongolia's Democratization
In particular, since 2014 Mongolia has hosted the "Ulaanbaatar Dialogue," which discusses the North Korean nuclear issue and Northeast Asian security matters, positioning itself as a mediator and dialogue platform for Korean Peninsula affairs. It was against this backdrop that Ulaanbaatar was mentioned as a candidate venue for the 2018 U.S.-North Korea summit.
Former President Elbegdorj, who visited Korea last October ahead of the Gyeongju Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, also said in a broadcast interview, "If a U.S.-North Korea summit is held, Ulaanbaatar could be the optimal location."
Referring to the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), to be held in Mongolia in August 2026, he said, "It would be good for (the U.S. and North Korea) to use that meeting as an opportunity," expressing hope for the possibility of resuming U.S.-North Korea dialogue.
Earlier, in April, President Lee also emphasized peace on the Korean Peninsula and regional stability during his trip to Vietnam, but there is an assessment that North Korea's position toward Vietnam and Mongolia differs. Vietnam is where the 2019 Hanoi U.S.-North Korea summit was held, and it is a country with the successful case of "Doi Moi," the most realistic economic development model North Korea can reference.
North Korea has long studied the Vietnamese-style reform and opening model, and Chairman Kim Jong-un is also known to have shown great interest in Vietnam's industrial complexes and economic development experience during his Hanoi visit. However, whereas Vietnam is closer to an economic model that North Korea can reference, Mongolia differs in that it is a country North Korea actually trusts. Mongolia is one of the few countries that can provide the diplomatic space for North Korea to return to the dialogue table.
Mongolia, a Nation North Korea Opens Its Heart To and Trusts
Lee Judges Mongolia Can Lead North Korea to Dialogue
In this regard, President Lee stressed in an interview with Mongolian state news agency Montsame, "Right now, both inter-Korean dialogue and U.S.-North Korea dialogue have been suspended for a long time," and "The more so at such times, it is important for the international community to maintain communication channels with North Korea and to create a venue for dialogue where regional peace can be discussed."
In particular, President Lee assessed Mongolia as "a close partner that shares the values of democracy and a market economy, and at the same time a very special country that has maintained a long-standing traditional friendship with North Korea," and expressed hope that "Mongolia, as a trusted peace partner and a country that also communicates with North Korea, can play a meaningful role in accumulating trust in the region."
National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac, briefing on the results of the summit between the two countries on the 9th, said, "Mongolian President Khurelsukh said he actively supports our government's efforts to realize peace on the Korean Peninsula," and conveyed that "the Mongolian side said that, as it also maintains a traditional friendship with North Korea, it will play the necessary role so that conditions can be created for improving inter-Korean relations and resuming dialogue."
Lee: 'Mongolia Is a Trusted Peace Partner… A Nation That Also Communicates with North Korea'
No one can guarantee when or in what manner dialogue with North Korea will resume. In the end, what matters in diplomacy is not so much the moment negotiations begin as the act of planting the seeds of a possibility that negotiations can begin again.
In that sense, that President Lee spoke of peace on the Korean Peninsula, phased denuclearization, and the normalization of inter-Korean relations in Ulaanbaatar—which had even been mentioned as a candidate venue for a U.S.-North Korea summit—is read as a strong message that he will not close the door to dialogue, beyond mere diplomatic rhetoric.
Mongolia has long been one of the few countries to which North Korea can open its heart. Against this backdrop, Ulaanbaatar may now be not the place farthest from the Korean Peninsula, but the place closest to a dialogue that will one day begin again.
It is impossible to know when or in what form the seeds sown by President Lee will sprout. But if Hanoi in 2019 was a city that showed North Korea the future it could dream of, Ulaanbaatar in 2026 may remain a city that revived the belief that dialogue is possible once more.
