Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the South Korea-U.S. alliance on Tuesday in Washington.

The U.S. State Department said in a news release Tuesday that the top diplomats discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral alliance, centered on a forward-looking agenda in the spirit of the two summits held last year between President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington and Gyeongju.

The department said the two leaders agreed to continue working closely on civil nuclear power, nuclear-powered submarines, shipbuilding and rebuilding critical U.S. industries.

Cho and Rubio also reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea.  

The department said the two sides also emphasized the importance of trilateral cooperation among South Korea, the U.S. and Japan for regional stability and a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Rubio expressed his gratitude to South Korea for its leadership in building secure, resilient and diversified critical mineral supply chains.