US-N Korea talks back on track
S Korea maintains momentum
NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-un reaffirmed his commitment to “complete” denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and to a planned meeting with US President Donald Trump, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said yesterday.
In Washington, US President Donald Trump signalled that preparations for a June12 summit with Kim were going ahead, despite having called the meeting off last week.
Moon and Kim agreed at a surprise meeting on Saturday that the possible North Korea-US summit must be held, Moon told a news conference in Seoul.
“Chairman Kim and I have agreed that the June 12 summit should be held successfully, and that our quest for the Korean peninsula’s denuclearisation and a perpetual peace regime should not be halted,” Moon said.
The meeting was the latest dramatic turn in a week of diplomatic ups and downs surrounding the prospects for an unprecedented summit between the US and North Korea, and the strongest sign yet that the two Korean leaders are trying to keep the on-again off-again meeting on track.
A statement from North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said Kim expressed “his fixed will” on the possibility of meeting Trump as previously planned.
Moon, who returned to Seoul on Thursday morning after meeting Trump in Washington in a bid to keep the high-stakes US-North Korea summit on track, said he delivered a message of Trump’s “firm resolve” to end the hostile relationship with North Korea and pursue bilateral economic co-operation.
Trump said in a letter to Kim on Thursday that he was cancelling the planned Singapore summit, citing North Korea’s “open hostility”.
However, Trump said on Saturday that he was still looking at a June12 date for a summit in Singapore, and that talks were progressing very well.
“We’re doing very well in terms of the summit with North Korea,” Trump said at the White House.
“It’s moving along very nicely. So we’re looking at June 12th in Singapore. “That hasn’t changed. So, we’ll see what happens.”
A White House team would leave as scheduled for Singapore this weekend to prepare for the possible summit, a White House spokeswoman said on Saturday.
China’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday that it “firmly” hoped the summit could happen as scheduled, and reiterated a call for both sides to be patient and show goodwill.
“We have always believed that direct contacts and dialogue between the leaders of North Korea and the US are crucial to resolving the peninsula nuclear issue,” it said.
While maintaining that Kim was committed to denuclearisation, Moon acknowledged that Pyongyang and Washington may have differing expectations of what that means, and urged both sides to hold working-level talks to resolve their differences.
“Even though they share the same resolve, there need to be discussions regarding the roadmap for how to make it happen, and that process could be tough,” he said, declining to define “complete denuclearisation”.
The Trump administration has demanded that North Korea completely and irreversibly shut its nuclear weapons programme.
Kim and Trump’s initial decision to meet followed months of war threats and insults between the leaders.
American officials are sceptical that Kim will ever fully abandon his nuclear arsenal, and Moon said North Korea was not yet convinced it could trust security guarantees from the US.
“However, during the US-South Korea summit, President Trump clearly emphasised that we may see not only the end of hostile relations, but also economic co-operation if North Korea denuclearises,” Moon said.
“I urge North Korea and the US to confirm each other’s will by sharing their problems with each other and communicating directly.”
A senior South Korean official said later the two Koreas were discussing a possible non-aggression pledge and the start of peace treaty talks as a way of addressing Pyongyang’s security concerns before US-North Korean negotiations.