S. Korean president says he’ll stay tough
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday downplayed concerns that the resumption of interKorean dialogue will be accompaniedby an easing of international sanctions and pressure on North Korea overits nuclear program.
Mr. Moon made the comments in a meeting with political party leaders a day after South Korea announced an agreement with the North to hold a rare summit in April. Senior South Korean officials who met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Monday also said the North expressed a willingness to hold talks with the United States on denuclearization and normalizingties.
Conservative opposition leaders expressed concern during Wednesday’s meeting at Seoul’s presidential palace that North Korea could use the talks as a way to reduce the pressure, and also questioned whether the North is genuinely interested in abandoning its nuclearweapons.
Also, everything we’re hearing about the North’s offer has come from the South. North Korea’s state media haven’t said anything concrete about what was said during the trip to Pyongyang by Mr. Moon’s presidential national security director, Chung Eui-yong, who led the SouthKorean delegation that metwith Mr. Kim.
In fact, the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Wednesday repeated that the country must enlarge its weapons arsenal to deal with “American nuclear threats andblackmailing.”
“The sanctions and pressure on North Korea aren’t maintained by South Korea alone — these are actions based on U.N. Security Council resolutions, and then there are strong unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States,” Mr. Moon said during the Wednesday meeting, added that the pressure on the North could only be reduced by “substantive progress” on denuclearization.
“These international efforts [to pressure the North] cannot be loosened by interKorean dialogue. We don’t aim for that to happen and it’salso impossible.”
Mr. Chung is to leave for the United States on Thursday to brief U.S. officials on the outcome of his trip to the North.Mr. Chung told reporters on Tuesday that he received a message from North Korea intended for the United States, but didn’t disclose what it was.