Denuclearisation high on Moon’s Pyongyang agenda
Seoul, South Korea - Denuclearisation will be high on the agenda for this week’s inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday on the eve of his third meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Moon will fly to the North Korean capital on Tuesday for the latest stage in a diplomatic thaw on the peninsula, although progress has stalled in denuclearisation talks between Pyongyang and Washington.
“I’ve confirmed the sincere willingness of both Chairman Kim Jong-un and President Trump on several occasions,” Moon said during a Cabinet meeting.
“I plan to hold frank talks with Chairman Kim Jong-un on ways to find a point of compromise between the US demand for denuclearisation and the North’s demand for ending hostile relations,” he added.
Moon, who met Kim in April and May this year, was instrumental in brokering the historic Singapore summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim in June, when Kim backed denuclearisation of the ‘Korean peninsula’.
But no details were agreed and Washington and Pyongyang have sparred since over what that means and how it will be achieved.
The US is pressing for the North’s ‘final, fully verified denuclearisation’, while Pyongyang is seeking a formal declaration that the 1950-53 Korean War is over - hostilities ceased with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. It has condemned demands for it to give up its weapons unilaterally as ‘gangster-like’.
The dovish South Korean leader - who has gladly taken on the role of a mediator - will try to close the gap between the US and the North, according to Moon’s chief of staff Im Jongseok. “Through various meetings and phone calls, President Moon has a better understanding of what the US is thinking than Chairman Kim,” Im said. Moon is due to fly to New York later this month to attend the UN General Assembly, where he is expected to meet Trump.