Prime Minister Kim Min-seok has said South Korea wishes for China to make positive contributions to inter-Korean relations, including to achieve North Korea's denuclearization. "That includes contributions to both promoting peaceful dialogue between South and North, and realizing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he added. He also cast doubt that inter-Korean relations will improve at a time when the North Korean leader remains "cold" toward the South. The prime minister addressed a host of other foreign policy issues, including U.S. demands for South Korea to increase its defense spending and tensions in the Taiwan Strait. "The South Korea-U.S. alliance primarily focuses its capabilities on peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."