South Korea damps down optimism over talks with Pyongyang

THE president of South Korea sounded a note of caution yesterday over the North’s offer of denuclearisation talks, saying it was “too early to be optimistic”, as Donald Trump welcomed the development.

The US president welcomed as positive and apparently sincere Pyongyang’s breakthrough declaration – as relayed by Seoul – that it wanted to talk to the US and would not need nuclear weapons if its security was guaranteed. It followed months of tensions, threats and insults between the US president and Kim Jong-un, the North’s leader, before the Winter Olympics in the South triggered a flurry of diplomacy.

Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s president, and Mr Kim will sit down for a summit on the southern side of the demilitarised zone next month, Seoul said, after its envoys returned from a historic trip to Pyongyang. It added that Mr Kim said the North would halt provocative missile and nuclear tests while talks are under way. But Mr Moon told party leaders: “We are only at the starting line and it’s too early to be optimistic.”

“Inter-korean talks won’t be enough to achieve peace,” he said, stressing the importance of Seoul maintaining close cooperation with its security guarantor, Washington, and adding there would be no let-up in sanctions or pressure purely as a result of inter-korean dialogue.

Mr Trump was upbeat on the news from Seoul, crediting Washington’s “very, very strong” sanctions push, as well as “big help” from China, for the potential diplomatic breakthrough.

“We have come a long way at least rhetorically with North Korea,” he said. “We are going to do something, one way or the other, we are going to do something, and not let that situation fester.”

But he signalled the threat of military action remained on the table, and his administration said it would press ahead with joint war games with South Korea. South Korean officials who met the North Korean leader will leave for Washington tomorrow. Chung Euiyong, head of the South Korean delegation, said he had a verbal message from Kim Jong-un that he will relay to US officials, but it was unclear whether he would meet Mr Trump.

After returning, Mr Chung will visit China and Russia, while Suh Hoon, the head of South Korea’s intelligence agency, will head to Japan to brief officials. China’s foreign ministry praised the “positive outcomes” of the meeting in Pyongyang, urging both sides to “seize the current opportunity”.

But Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese chief cabinet secretary, said there was no change in Tokyo’s policy of imposing “maximum pressure” on the North over its nuclear and missile programmes.

Past talks and deals with the North had failed to result in its denuclearisation, he pointed out, after Itsunori Onodera, the defence minister, told reporters: “We still don’t know clearly North Korea’s intention.”