ROK hints at Kim visit by end of the year
Seoul anticipates the first visit by a top leader from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in over six decades to happen this month to consolidate the continuous diplomatic reconciliation efforts witnessed this year on the Korean Peninsula.
The Republic of Korea’s Unification Ministry said on Monday that it doesn’t rule out the possibility to host Kim Jong-un before the end of 2018, adding that relevant preparations are under way.
Kim Il-gi, a researcher with the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul, told the Yonhap news agency that if realized, Kim’s trip would mark the first time that a DPRK leader has set foot in the ROK capital since the 1950-53 Korean War, something he said “that has long been considered nearly unthinkable in the ROK”.
“Deciding to make the visit itself would carry meaning as a significant political achievement,” the researcher added.
Baik Tae-hyun, an ROK ministry spokesman, told a news conference that Seoul will “calmly make efforts for agreements reached between the two countries to be carried out without a problem”.
During a third summit between Kim and the ROK President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang in September, Kim promised to make a trip to the south “at an early date” in return for Moon’s visit to the DPRK’s capital.
But skepticism has mounted recently on whether the visit would take place as proposed amid stalled denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington.
Subsequent nuclear diplomacy hasn’t made headway since the landmark US-DPRK summit held in Singapore in June, as Pyongyang has sought Washington’s relief from its tough economic sanctions, while the latter insists Pyongyang should achieve a “complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization” first.
Despite that, both Moon and US President Donald Trump say fears of war on the peninsula have eased sharply.
On Monday, Moon said Trump has given a green light to Kim’s envisioned Seoul visit taking place before a second Kim-Trump meeting, adding Kim’s trip to the ROK would help create fresh momentum for efforts to denuclearize the peninsula.
Trump said on Sunday that his next meeting with Kim would likely happen in January or February. He said there were three sites under consideration, but declined to name them.
Meanwhile, with regard to the recently launched joint railway inspection between the two neighbors, ROK’s Baik said that things are going forward to implement the Pyongyang Declaration without any major problems.