Moon calls for US-North Korea summit before US election

South Korean President Moon Jae-in hopes the leaders of the United States and North Korea will find common ground before the US presidential election in November.

During a video conference with European Council President Charles Michel on Tuesday, Moon’s voiced the hope that another summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could help resume stalled nuclear negotiations.

“I believe there’s a need for North Korea and the US to try dialogue one more time before the US presidential election,” a presidential official quoted Moon as saying. “The issues of nuclear programmes and sanctions will ultimately have to be resolved through North KoreaUS talks.”

Moon’s office had conveyed such views to Washington and the officials there were making efforts to resume the talks, the South Korean official said.

There were hopes of an agreement to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons programme. But their second summit, in early 2019 in Vietnam, fell apart.

Trump and Kim met again at the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas in June 2019 and agreed to restart negotiations, but working-level talks between the two sides in Sweden in October were broken off. Inter-Korean tensions flared in June after the North blew up a joint liaison office, severed hotlines and threatened military action over plans by defector groups in the South to send anti-Kim leaflets across the border.

Following weeks of heated exchanges, Kim suspended the military plans, without specifying why. The moves from Pyongyang were seen aimed at recapturing the attention of Trump and making a renewed push for sanctions relief before the November election.

On Monday, US deputy secretary of state Stephen Biegun, said there was still time for both sides to re-engage and “make substantial progress”.—