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| President Moon Jae-in and first lady Kim Jung-sook are welcomed by Stefano Zaniniafter, vice chief of diplomatic protocol at Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after arriving at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Tuesday. Moon will have a summit with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and visit the Vatican for a meeting with Pope Francis. / Yonhap |
By Kim Yoo-chul
ROME ― President Moon Jae-in is using his ongoing tour of European nations to call for their support for the Korea peace process and to ease sanctions on North Korea.
Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday (KST) that President Moon will ask British Prime Minister Theresa May at their summit this week to consider lifting some sanctions in response to North Korea's planned denuclearization steps. Moon also plans to hold a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"Moon is focusing on winning solid support from permanent United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members and European countries to push the denuclearization process forward. Now is the time for the international community to provide some assurances that Pyongyang has made the right choice toward peace on the Korean Peninsula, and encourage the country to speed up the process," a senior Cheong Wa Dae official told The Korea Times.
Easing some economic sanctions on North Korea is turning into a "major issue" during Moon's European trip after Pyongyang has in recent weeks made its demands explicit. More precisely, the North said sanctions should have been eased as a "corresponding measure" after it announced plans to dismantle a nuclear facility and its inventory.
This move may hurt Seoul's relationship with Washington. The United States is still squeezing North Korea financially, saying no sanctions relief should be permitted without specifics on denuclearization.
North Korea's long-time backers ― Russia and China ― are on President Moon's side in terms of the need to ease some sanctions.
But Seoul's ambitions will not come to pass until all five permanent members of the UNSC agree that the demonstrated denuclearization plans by North Korea merit relief.
"The message to be delivered to British Prime Minister Theresa May will be similar to that Moon gave to French President Emmanuel Macron during their summit. Seoul hopes to use sanctions relief as a tool to persuade Pyongyang to take more concrete steps toward denuclearization, but it remains to be seen whether the British prime minister will accept such a request," another presidential office official requesting anonymity.
France, the United Kingdom and the United States haven't come around to Moon's way of thinking yet. Macron made it clear to the president in Paris that France supports sanctions and pressure on North Korea until the country is fully denuclearized, showing no interest in using sanctions relief as a short-term tool to induce and encourage Pyongyang toward further disarmament steps as Moon proposed.
South Korea is in a challenging position. Without any clear support from the UNSC, President Moon is moving forward with his own inter-Korean rapprochement along several axes, with high-level military talks, exchanges, family reunions and other activities. Economic cooperation has still not materialized.
President Moon arrived in Rome early Wednesday as part of his nine-day trip to Europe. He will meet Pope Francis at the Vatican to deliver an invitation from Kim Jong-un to visit Pyongyang, possibly next year, and then participate in the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit in Belgium.
