Pence says 2nd summit will lay ground to denuke NK

President Moon Jae-in, right, shakes hands with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence before the start of his meeting with the vice president held in the Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Center, Singapore, Thursday (KST). Yonhap

By Kim Yoo-chul

The United States is waiting for more moves from North Korea to advancing the goal of denuclearization, Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday (KST).

“President Trump wanted to convey his gratitude for the full partnership in our collective efforts to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. And that progress gives us all great hope in the days ahead. We will see even more material steps taken by North Korea to achieve our shared objective,” Pence told President Moon Jae-in at a meeting held on the sidelines of their participation in a series of annual regional summits in Singapore, according to press pool reports.

Pence said the planned second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will lay the groundwork for achieving the long-term objective of denuclearization. He added the United States will also work together with Japan and other nations to work toward peace on the peninsula.

“But much work remains and I look forward to discussing with President Moon about the plans for another summit between Trump and the North's leader Kim. The point is how we can work even more closely together in the days ahead to ensure peace and security on the peninsula,” the vice president said. He added previous negotiations on the North Korean nuclear issue represented “meaningful progress” to achieve the objective of complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID).

President Moon thanked Pence for U.S. support in the ongoing peace process and reaffirmed Seoul's alliance with Washington as the linchpin of peace and security in Northeast Asia, as well as the peninsula.

“President Trump's strong leadership and firm determination significantly helped the denuclearization talks see substantial progress. Kim Jong-un told me it was impossible to see progress in the denuclearization talks without President Trump. If the second summit between Trump and Kim actually happens, then that will help the ongoing peace process see huge progress,” President Moon said.

Cheong Wa Dae said Moon and Pence also discussed the ongoing efforts to accomplish the two countries' mutual goal of achieving the final, fully verified denuclearization (FFVD) of North Korea as agreed to by the North Korean leader.

“Vice President Pence and President Moon noted the importance of close coordination on North Korea-related matters, including implementing sanctions and inter-Korean cooperation, and committed to continuing the close communication between our two countries,” the U.S. State Department said in a press release after the meeting.

Separately, the South Korea-ASEAN summit adopted a joint statement highlighting President Moon's efforts in bringing about progress in peace talks thus far.

“We highlighted North Korea's pledge to refrain from further nuclear and missile tests and called on North Korea to fulfill its stated commitment to complete denuclearization. We reiterated our commitment to the full implementation of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and noted international efforts to bring about complete denuclearization in a final, fully verified manner,” the joint statement said.

South Korea also agreed with ASEAN members to further enhance mutual trade and investment by capitalizing on the free trade area agreed to with a view toward achieving the target of $200 billion by 2020 in bilateral trade.

“We agreed to strengthen ongoing efforts to advance negotiations for further tariff liberalization of sensitive track products under the South Korea-ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (AKTIGA). We noted the importance of improving the intellectual property regime to ensure the protection of innovation, and welcomed cooperation between ASEAN and South Korea intellectual property-related government organizations,” it added.