; Whereas the SCM is key to strengthening bilateral cooperation in responding to global security challenges and threats, including terrorism, piracy, natural disasters, peacekeeping operations, and stabilization and reconstruction; Whereas the SCM will continue to pursue complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement of the nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs of North Korea to maintain a lasting peace; and Whereas, with the continued and growing threat from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the increasing importance of the Indo-Pacific region, the SCM has come to represent the irreplaceable friendship and alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea: Now, therefore, be it