How South Korea leader took the reins in North Korea nuclear diplomacy
SEOUL, South Korea—South Korean President Moon Jae-in has always wanted to lead the diplomacy aimed at ending the North Korean nuclear crisis, even as he was overshadowed in his first year in office by a belligerent standoff between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.
Moon now has his wish granted as he prepares for a meeting in late April with Kim and basks in the international glow of having engineered another upcoming summit between the American and North Korean leaders.
It doesn’t mean the decadeslong effort to thwart the North’s nuclear ambition is settled, but it’s clear that Moon is having a diplomatic moment. He’s popular at home, and abroad he has emerged as a reliable intermediary between North Korea and the United States, enemies that spent the last year threatening each other with total destruction.
Since taking office last May, the liberal Moon has maintained that South Korea needs to lead on the North Korea issue.
In part, it was a matter of national pride for many South Koreans, who liken their country’s geopolitical situation to “a shrimp stuck between whales”—the whales being the U.S. and China.
Moon initially found little room to maneuver diplomatically.
Moon ordered provocative precision-guided missile tests immediately after North Korean weapons tests, something that even his conservative predecessors didn’t do.
He also allowed the United States to install a high-tech missile defense system despite strong oppositions by China.
All the while, though, he kept working to reach out to the North.
The two Koreas have held leaders’ talks only twice since the peninsula’s 1945 division. There’s been no such contact ever between sitting U.S. and North Korean leaders.
The process this time was linked to the Olympics.
In January, North and South Korea had their first dialogue in two years to discuss cooperation for the February games. The rivals agreed to march together to open the games and to field their first joint Olympic team in women’s hockey.
Just as he was praised for setting up the summit, Moon could also be in the crosshairs should the talks fall apart or not bear fruit.
Moon would possibly face criticism from U.S. and South Korean conservatives that his overtures only helped North Korea buy time to perfect its nuclear program.