Moon credits Trump for talks with North Korea

Trump’s warning created pressure on N. Korea: S. Korea Prez

Seoul, Jan. 10: South Korea’s President, Moon Jae- in, has credited Donald Trump for creating the political backdrop to this week’s inter- Korea talks, and echoed the US President’s warning that Pyongyang faced more pressure if it continued to conduct missile and nuclear tests, reported the

Guardian on Wednesday. Speaking a day after senior North and South Korean officials met for the first time in more than two years, Moon suggested that US- led pressure on North Korea over the past year had helped bring the two sides together.

“I think President Trump deserves big credit for bringing about the inter- Korean talks, and I want to show my gratitude,” he told reporters in Seoul. “It could be the result of US- led sanctions and pressure.”

Mr Trump had already claimed credit for facilitating the talks – which focused on North Korea’s participation in next month’s Winter Olympics — saying at the weekend: “If I weren’t involved, they wouldn’t be talking about the Olympics right now, they’d be doing no talking.”

Moon’s praise for Trump is being seen as an attempt to ease US concerns that the recent thaw in cross- border ties could drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.

Mr Moon also said that he would be willing to sit down with the North’s leader Kim Jong- un, as the international community welcomed an agreement for Pyongyang to send its athletes to the Winter Olympics in the South.

The Games in Pyeongchang next month have long been overshadowed by geopolitical tensions, with the North launching missiles capable of reaching the US mainland in recent months and detonating by far its most powerful nuclear device to date.

But Pyongyang - which boycotted the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul — on Tuesday agreed to send athletes and officials to the event as North and South held their first formal talks for two years at Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone.

“It is only the beginning,” Mr Moon told a press conference. “Yesterday was the first step and I think we had a good start.

“Bringing North Korea to talks for denuclearisation is the next step we must take.”

He was willing to hold a summit “at any time”, he said, as long as it was “under the right conditions”.

— AP A man takes pictures next to TV screens showing the live broadcast of South Korean President Moon Jae- in's New Year's speech at the Yongsan Electronic store in Seoul on Wednesday.