South Korea and the United States have agreed to strengthen cooperation in the fields of disaster and climate change response during their safety-related ministerial talks in Washington, D.C., the interior ministry here said Friday.

The agreement was reached between Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min and US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday, the ministry said. This is the first time that South Korea's interior minister has met with the US homeland security secretary since the ministry was launched in 2017.

Lee said the Seoul-Washington alliance has become closer through the strong leadership and active efforts of President Yoon Suk Yeol and US President Joe Biden, and the South Korean government will continue to deepen such cooperation in the field of disaster preparedness and response.

Lee and Mayorkas introduced each country's climate change response measures and agreed on the need to proactively identify new risk factors and concentrate national capabilities on coping with them, the ministry said.

Notably, Lee explained Seoul's comprehensive national security system reform plan and nuclear civil defense system, which has been newly devised in response to North Korea's nuclear threat, emphasizing the possibility of bilateral cooperation with the US department in those fields. (Yonhap)