Moon to carry Kim’s message to Trump
Says N. Korean leader seeks another summit
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean President Moon Jae-in, freshly returned home Thursday from a three-day summit with Kim Jong Un, said the North Korean leader wants the U.S. secretary of state to visit Pyongyang soon for nuclear talks and hopes for a quick follow-up to his June summit with President Donald Trump.
Moon told reporters in Seoul he will carry a private message from Kim to Trump when he meets the U.S. president in New York next week on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session.
Both Trump and Kim have expressed a desire to follow up on the June meeting in Singapore. But there are worries among observers about whether Kim is as committed to denuclearization as he claims.
Moon faces increasing pressure from Washington to find a path forward in efforts to get Kim to abandon his nuclear arsenal, which is thought to be closing in on the ability to target any part of the continental United States.
“There are things that the United States wants us to convey to North Korea, and on the other side there are also things that North Korea wants us to convey to the United States,” Moon said. “I will faithfully serve that role when I meet President Trump to facilitate dialogue between North Korea and the United States.”
Moon, who set up the Singapore summit, also told reporters he’ll convey to Trump his and Kim’s desire to get a declaration on ending the Korean War by the end of this year. The war still technically continues because it ended in 1953 with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
Earlier Thursday, Kim and Moon took to the road for the final day of their summit, hiking to the peak of Mount Paektu, which is considered sacred in the North. Their trip to the mountain on the North Korean-chinese border followed the announcement of wide-ranging agreements on Wednesday that they trumpeted as a major step toward peace.
However, their premier accord on the North’s pursuit of nuclear-tipped missiles contained a big condition: Kim stated that he would permanently dismantle North Korea’s main nuclear facility only if the United States takes unspecified corresponding measures.