Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Climbing mythic mountain

It would be step to denucleari­zation, he says

- CHOE SANG-HUNZ Informatio­n for this article was contribute­d by staff members of The Associated Press.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (center) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (right) review an honor guard Thursday as they arrive to climb Baekdusan, also called Mount Paektu, an active volcano near North Korea’s border with China that holds a special place in the history, mythology and imaginatio­ns of Koreans on both sides of the border. Moon, wrapping up a threeday summit with Kim, called on the U.S. to declare a formal end to the Korean War.

SEOUL, South Korea — President Moon Jae-in of South Korea urged the United States on Thursday to declare an end to the Korean War as an incentive for North Korea to denucleari­ze, a call that could put President Donald Trump’s administra­tion in a bind as it tries to revive stalled talks with Kim Jong Un, the North’s leader.

Moon said that during his three-day summit with Kim this week, the North’s leader had repeatedly expressed willingnes­s to give up his nuclear weapons quickly and to build new relations with Washington.

“He again and again reaffirmed his commitment to denucleari­zation,” Moon said at a news conference in Seoul, the South’s capital, after returning from North Korea. “He said he wanted to achieve complete denucleari­zation as soon as possible and focus on economic developmen­t.”

To “expedite denucleari­zation,” Moon said, Kim also hopes to meet Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, and to hold a second meeting with Trump as soon as possible. Trump and Kim first met in Singapore in June.

One of the first steps Kim wants to take before moving toward denucleari­zation, Moon said, is to secure a joint statement declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War, which was halted only with an armistice.

U.S. and South Korean analysts express fear that such a declaratio­n would give Kim reason to demand that the United States withdraw its 28,500 troops from the South while North Korea is still a nuclear-armed state. But Moon said it would be merely a “political statement,” and that it would not affect the status of U.S. troops in South Korea or his country’s alliance with the United States.

“I confirmed with Chairman Kim that his concept of

the end-of-war declaratio­n is the same as mine,” Moon said.

The South Korean leader said he would discuss making such a declaratio­n by the end of the year when he meets with Trump in New York on Monday for the annual U.N. General Assembly session.

Earlier Thursday, Moon and Kim ascended Baekdusan, a still-active volcano near North Korea’s border with China that reaches more than 9,000 feet and looms large in the history and imaginatio­ns of Koreans on both sides of the border.

Baekdusan, sometimes called Mount Paektu in English and known as Changbaish­an in Chinese, is the mythical birthplace of the Korean people. The visit there by the two leaders punctuated their avowed intent to improve and normalize relations.

“This is an important first step,” Moon, an avid hiker who said he had long dreamed of climbing the mountain, told reporters at the peak. “I trust that the time will come when ordinary South Koreans will be able to come here on tours.”

Kim also said he hoped South Koreans would soon be able to visit the mountain. “Since the division of Korea, people in the South have had a longing for the mountain but could not come.”

The visit offered both leaders an important photo opportunit­y and a propaganda victory. For Kim, Moon’s trip was a visit to the purported heart of the North’s communist revolution, the site at which his grandfathe­r, Kim Il Sung led a guerrilla war against Japanese colonialis­ts in the early 20th century, and where his father, Kim Jong Il, was born, according to North Korean propaganda. (Historians say Kim Jong Il was born in the Russian Far East, not in Kim Il Sung’s “secret camp” at the foot of Baekdusan, as the North claims.)

Moon and Kim on Wednesday signed a series of agreements that Choi Jong-kun, Moon’s secretary for arms control, called a “de facto nonaggress­ion treaty.”

Both sides agreed to create no-fly and no-hostility zones, and to stop live-fire drills along their land and sea border. They also agreed to disarm Panmunjom, the truce village in the heavily fortified Demilitari­zed Zone, where North Korean troops fired at a North Korean soldier who defected to the South last year.

Moon and Kim also agreed to open a facility near Mount Kumgang, in the southeaste­rn part of North Korea, where relatives separated by the Korean War could hold regular reunions, and they said they would make a joint bid to host the 2032 Olympics.

Meanwhile, the U.S. hopes to begin face-to-face negotiatio­ns with North Korea next month on terms for resuming searches in North Korea for remains of American servicemen, a senior Pentagon official said Thursday.

Kelly McKeague, director of the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency, said the aim is to begin searches at former battlefiel­ds next spring if agreement can be reached on areas of current dispute such as the types and amounts of compensati­on to North Korea for its assistance.

Remains of two American servicemen killed during the Korean War and returned by North Korea two months ago have been identified, but McKeague would not disclose their names. He said the White House wants to do that. The remains were among an undetermin­ed number contained in 55 boxes that the North Korean army turned over to U.S. officials on July 27.

 ?? AP/Pyongyang Press Corps ??
AP/Pyongyang Press Corps

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