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| Chung Eui-yong, head of Seoul's five-member special delegation, answers questions at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday, regarding the envoys' meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un the day before in the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang. Yonhap |
Seoul delivers US messages to Kim
By Kim Yoo-chul
President Moon Jae-in will visit Pyongyang from Sept. 18 to 20 for a third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, his chief special envoy said Thursday.
"During the three-day meeting, the leaders of the two Koreas will discuss ways to improve inter-Korean relations and achieve denuclearization, including the North's possible handing over a list of its nuclear weapons," National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong told reporters at Cheong Wa Dae.
The announcement came a day after a delegation of five special envoys, led by Chung, returned from Pyongyang, where they met the North Korean leader and delivered a letter from Moon letter. The envoys also delivered messages from the United States, Chung said.
Seoul hopes the third summit between Moon and Kim will provide a breakthrough in the stalled talks between Washington and Pyongyang over the slow progress of nuclear disarmament.
The two Koreas will hold working-level talks at the border village of Panmunjeom to prepare for the summit, Cheong Wa Dae said.
During the media briefing, Chung said the envoys met with Kim in hopes of breaking the impasse over dismantling the North's nuclear weapons programs. The delegation also attended a banquet.
"North Korea has demanded the U.S. apply simultaneous actions as a prerequisite in advancing talks for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Chung told reporters.
"Kim reaffirmed his commitment for complete nuclear disarmament of the peninsula. But he told us his country would apply more specific and concrete measures to move ahead with denuclearization if the principle of simultaneous action in achieving peace is kept as agreed to."
At the June 12 summit in Singapore between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim, Trump offered some degree of security guarantees and a lifting of economic sanctions as nuclear negotiations advance. But the agreement was a rather vaguely worded written document highlighting the North's pledge to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs.
Since beginning talks, North Korea has taken a series of steps including destroying its nuclear testing site and dismantling parts of its main missile testing facility, but complaints from U.S. officials are the North haven't taken any "concrete steps" toward fulfilling the denuclearization pledge.
"Kim repeated his genuine determination to dismantle his nuclear weapons programs during the meeting, but he was a bit sorry to see such efforts being underestimated, and doubt growing over his commitment to achieving permanent peace on the peninsula. He said the North has undertaken some relevant measures needed, pre-emptively. Kim told use these were gestures of goodwill," Chung said.
He mentioned Kim saying dismantling the Tongchang-ri rocket launch site means no further long-range missile tests will take place as the facility was the North's only long-range missile testing site.
"Kim also told us that about 70 percent of its Punggye-ri nuclear test site has been destroyed, meaning no future nuclear tests would be possible," Chung said.
However, the delegation chief didn't specify the types of concessions the North was seeking. The need for "simultaneous" action was the reason nothing more concrete was signed at the June summit, and why there was is, as yet, no agreement for a peace treaty to end the Korean War.
Chung said that Kim clarified his country has no plans to walk away from the nuclear negotiating table empty handed as his country wants to push forward with improving relations with the United States through the denuclearization process.
There were no discussions about the timing of a new visit to North Korea by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after his planned trip was abruptly delayed, which in part stemmed from Washington's discontent with the slow denuclearization dialogue process, Chung said.
No declaration to end Korean War, next month
Kim was hoping to end hostilities between North Korea and the United States by the end of Trump's first term, which ends January 2021.
North Korea has been consistent in pushing for a formal end to the Korean War, which ended in an armistice instead of a peace treaty. Chung said no plans were set for a declaration ending the Korean War at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly next month in New York.
"It's unlikely that a trilateral summit involving President Moon, Kim and Trump will be held on the sidelines of this year's United Nations event, but President Moon will deliver a keynote speech," Chung said.
The Seoul envoys delivered messages from Trump to the North Korean leader Kim, but their details were unknown.
"Presidential security adviser Chung called White House national security adviser John Bolton at 8:00 p.m. (KST), Thursday, and briefed him on the envoys' meeting with Kim and deliver messages from him to Trump," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a separate briefing.
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