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| President Moon Jae-in speaks during a meeting with senior presidential secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Moon will fly to Pyongyang today for a three-day trip, which will include multiple meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Yonhap |
By Kim Yoo-chul
President Moon Jae-in said Monday he will try to persuade Pyongyang to advance peace and denuclearization processes during his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
"Achieving the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula isn't an issue for South Korea to handle alone. The top priority at the upcoming summit will be what specific steps should be taken to find common ground between the North and the U.S. We have to reconcile the North's demand to end hostile relations with the United States and how the latter can offer a security guarantee as a condition for denuclearization," Moon said in a weekly meeting with his top secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae.
"I plan to have a thorough and open discussion with Kim Jong-un. I will try to persuade Kim to advance the nuclear disarmament talks with the United States as he and U.S. President Donald Trump have reaffirmed their commitment for denuclearization many times."
He said Seoul is hoping to see a summit between Kim and Trump sometime soon. "If they meet again, that will be just great and will hugely help the stalled talks find momentum for a quick and speedy resolution."
President Moon will fly to Pyongyang from Seoul Air Base in Seongnam at 8:40 a.m. local time today in what some officials say is a "desperate move" to create a diplomatic thaw between Washington and Pyongyang amid a lack of progress in their denuclearization talks.
Moon, who has met with Kim twice so far this year, has been quite successful in his role as "negotiator" in pushing for the June Singapore summit between Trump and Kim.
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But because no substantial and concrete details were revealed then, talks on denuclearization have stalled over the definition of the term and how to achieve it..
"What I just want is peace, which is irreversible and permanent regardless of external factors. I believe building a permanent peace is the only way for co-prosperity and the unification of the two Koreas," Moon said.
Moon will possibly brief Trump on the specifics of his meeting with Kim at a separate summit next month, on the sidelines of his participation in the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
U.S. officials remain doubtful over the prospects for the third Moon-Kim meeting, considering the complexity of the denuclearization process and how far apart the parties currently are.
While an official declaration ending the Korean War doesn't necessarily imply a legally binding peace treaty, some say that if realized it may create political momentum which will be beneficial to North Korea in terms of discussions toward a peace regime, economic benefits and security concessions.
Moon said business leaders from the South's big companies including Samsung's de facto leader Lee Jae-yong will join his delegation as a step to explore business opportunities there. "The opening of the liaison office in Gaeseong represents the South's commitment to move forward on inter-Korean business projects," he said.
In the days leading up to the summit, the two Koreas opened the office, just across the border in North Korea, to maintain constant communication. Whereas the two sides previously spoke over telephone and fax lines, about 20 officials from each side will staff the office permanently and speak to each other daily.
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