Seoul, Washington, Pyongyang speeding up denuke talks: Moon

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday personal diplomacy between the leaders of the United States and North Korea and Moon himself are still working toward the North’s denuclearization and lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.

“What really matters is that South and North Korea, as well as the United States, come to the negotiating table and the multilateral talks have proceeded thanks to commitment and willingness regarding bringing a lasting peace on the peninsula. I would say the current mood of dialogue has been created on the back of the leaders’ efforts to actively embrace the risk of personal diplomacy in the process,” Moon said at the start of a weekly meeting with senior presidential aides, according to Cheong Wa Dae press pool reports.

The President said he can’t afford to lose what he described as a “golden opportunity” and asked the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea to take a more gradual and step-by-step approach in the entire process of achieving denuclearization and establishing peace on the peninsula.

“It is a process to change the destiny of the peninsula and it’s also a process to completely end hostilities that have lasted more than 70 years,” according to the President.

Despite verbal agreements between U.S. President Donald Trump and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un during their historic encounter at the inter-Korean border in June to resume working-level talks after the meeting, no further progress has been made in that direction.

Rather, the North repeatedly staged short-range ballistic missiles in a protest for this year’s joint military drill between South Korea and the U.S. which raised doubts about the prospect in the process.

Trump, however, reacted coolly to North Korea’s provocations by downplaying the significance of the repressive state’s missile launches.