North Korea will need to freeze its nuclear and missile development as part of steps to achieve the “denuclearization of the entire Korean Peninsula,” South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said in a new interview, despite Pyongyang’s repeated insistence that it will never give up its nuclear weapons.

In his most detailed remarks on the issue since taking office, Lee told Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun that the denuclearization process should begin with a freeze on weapons development, followed by scaling down of the DPRK’s nuclear program and ultimately full denuclearization.