Kim seeks to scrap nukes — Moon
• South Korean leader says North Korea wants end to hostile policies
North Korea has expressed its commitment to “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula without conditions, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday, as the US vowed to keep “maximum pressure” on Pyongyang.
Moon said big-picture agreements about denuclearisation, establishing a peace regime and normalisation of relations between the Koreas and the US should not be difficult to reach through meetings between the North and South, and between the North and the US.
“I don’t think denuclearisation has different meanings for South and North Korea. The North is expressing a will for a complete denuclearisation,” Moon said during a lunch with CEs of Korean media groups.
“They have not attached any conditions that the US cannot accept, such as the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea. All they are talking about is the end of hostile policies against North Korea, followed by a guarantee of security.”
North Korea has defended its nuclear and missile programmes, which it pursues in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, as a necessary deterrent against perceived US hostility. The US stations 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea has said over the years that it could consider giving up its nuclear arsenal if the US removed troops from South Korea and withdrew its socalled nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan.
South Korea announced on Wednesday it was considering how to change a decades-old armistice with North Korea into a peace agreement as it prepares for the North-South summit in April.
Reclusive North Korea and rich, democratic South Korea are technically still at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not with a peace treaty.
Moon said he saw possibility of a peace agreement, or even international aid for the North’s economy, if it denuclearises. But he also said the inter-Korean meeting had “a lot of constraints” in that the Koreas could not make progress separate from the North Korea-US meeting, and could not reach an agreement that transcends international sanctions.
“So first the South-North Korean summit must make a good beginning, and the dialogue between the two Koreas likely must continue after we see the results of the North Korea-US summit,” Moon said.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Mike Pompeo visited North Korea last week and met Kim, with whom he formed a “good relationship”, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting planned for May or June.
NORTH KOREA HAS SAID … IT COULD CONSIDER GIVING UP ITS NUCLEAR ARSENAL IF THE US REMOVED TROOPS
Trump said on Wednesday he hoped the meeting would be successful, but warned he would call it off if he did not think it would produce results.
Trump told a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that his campaign of “maximum pressure” on North Korea would continue until Pyongyang gave up its nuclear weapons.
“The US remains committed to complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea,” US disarmament ambassador Robert Wood told a news conference in Geneva on Thursday ahead of a two-week conference on the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty.
“In terms of the pressure campaign the things we have been very interested in are maintaining the pressure, meaning enforcing sanctions, ensuring the North is not able to get access to funds that help further its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes,” he said.
North Korea must show it was “serious about getting rid of its nuclear weapons pro- gramme” and take “concrete steps”, Wood said, adding: “But we’ve got a long way to go.”
China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing China supported ending the state of war on the Korean peninsula. “China supports ending the war state on the peninsula at an early date. As a party involved in the peninsula issue, China is willing to play an active role,” she said.
Ahead of next week’s meeting, Seoul and Pyongyang will also complete instalment of a telephone hotline between the two leaders on Friday, directly connecting South Korea’s presidential Blue House and North Korea’s State Affairs Commission, the South’s presidential spokesperson said.
Six top South Korean officials will accompany Moon to the meeting, including his chief of staff, spy chief, national security adviser and unification, defence and foreign ministers, the spokesperson said. North Korea, meanwhile, will hold a plenary meeting of its governing party’s central committee on Friday, state media KCNA said on Thursday.