S. Korea, US to cooperate closely

SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jaein and United States President Donald Trump held discussions yesterday to ensure the North KoreaUS summit remains on track after North Korea threatened to pull out of the highlevel talks.

Moon and Trump spoke over the phone for about 20 minutes, and exchanged views on North Korea’s recent reactions, South Korea’s presidential office said without elaborating.

‘‘The two leaders will work closely and unwaveringly for the successful hosting of the North Korea US summit set on June 12, including the upcoming South KoreaUS summit,’’ the presidential official said.

Moon and Trump are set to meet tomorrow in Washington before North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets Trump on June 12 in Singapore.

Although an historic interKorean summit in late April raised hopes of reconciliation, North Korea showed a dramatic change in tone in recent days.

North Korea’s chief negotiator Ri Son Gwon said last week it would not hold talks with South Korea unless its demands were met, taking issue with the USSouth Korean air combat drills known as Max Thunder. It came a day after it threatened to pull out of the summit with the US.

Further dampening the mood, a spokesman for North Korea’s Red Cross Society demanded on Saturday that South Korea’s Government send North Korean female restaurant workers back to their home ‘‘without delay’’ to show the will to improve the interKorean ties, the North’s Korea Central News agency said.

A dozen North Korean restaurant workers came to South Korea in 2016 from China, and North Korea had urged to send them back claiming they were abducted by the South, even though the South has said the 12 workers decided to defect of their own free will.

Lee Dongbok, a researcher at New Asia Research Institution, said part of the reason for the North’s demands of the repatriation was to divide South Korea’s public opinion over the workers.

‘‘It is also to pressure the Moon Government to agree to its demand so that South Korea can keep up the momentum for the North KoreaUS summit meeting,’’ Lee said.

Meanwhile, Trump on Saturday nominated Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, as US ambassador to South Korea. If confirmed by the Senate, Harris would fill a post that has been vacant since Trump took office in January 2017. — Reuters