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| President Mon Jae-in and first lady Kim Jung-sook wave their hands at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Sunday, before departing for his state visit to three Scandinavian, such as Finland, Norway and Sweden. Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
President Moon Jae-in is pushing for his summits with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the upcoming G20 meeting in Osaka, Japan, later this month, a high-ranking government official said.
The summits, on the sidelines of the state leaders' participation in the Osaka meeting from June 28 to 29, are expected to break a current impasse in talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear program, according to the official who requested anonymity.
"We are arranging the schedules for Moon's possible summits with Xi and Abe during the G20 meeting," the official said Sunday.
President Moon is being urged to play a more active role in addressing diplomatic issues with the neighboring countries, he added.
In a possible summit with Xi, Moon would ask for the Chinese government not to apply any retaliatory and discriminatory measures against South Korean manufacturers in China including Samsung and LG Group because of the ongoing trade dispute between Washington and Beijing.
With the year-long trade dispute showing no imminent signs of coming to an end, concerns have been raised that South Korean exporters could be subjected to restrictions. China is their largest market in terms of investment, number of customers, amount of sales and revenue.
A Chinese officials was recently said to have warned Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, the world's top two memory chip suppliers, not to join the Washington-led boycott of Huawei.
Aside from pending economic issues, President Moon is expected to call on the Chinese leader to play a part in getting the suspended nuclear talks between the U.S. and North Korea back on track.
Moon is set to discuss recent diplomatic conflicts between Seoul and Tokyo in a potential summit with Japanese Prime Minister Abe, the official and other sources who are familiar with the issue said. The two countries are involved in a dispute around the forced labor of Koreans during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Last year, Seoul's Supreme Court ruled that Japanese companies should compensate the Korean victims. But Tokyo has since argued the compensation issue during the colonial era was settled in a 1965 state-to-state treaty.
Moon on trip to Northern Europe
On Sunday afternoon, President Moon kicked off an eight-day state visit to three Northern European countries where he plans to deliver a message of peace on the peninsula.
His first destination is Helsinki, where Moon and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto will hold a summit and a joint press conference. Moon's schedules there include a visit to the country's innovation hub of Otaniemi. He will also participate in a state banquet hosted by the Finnish president.
Upon wrapping up his schedule there Tuesday, Moon will depart for Oslo, the capital of Norway. Moon plans to hold a summit with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg to seek ways to expand bilateral ties on multiple fronts.
Moon is also scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at the University of Oslo on Wednesday under the theme of peace on the peninsula.
"The address will focus on the rare momentum of peace here. Moon will also ask for support from European countries to bring lasting peace on the peninsula," an official at Cheong Wa Dae said.
Moon is likely to underline the need to denuclearize the peninsula even if North Korea is showing no signs of resuming the stalled denuclearization talks with the United States following the breakdown of the Hanoi summit last February.
Starting last year, Pyongyang expressed repeated willingness for the country's denuclearization and has stopped testing its nuclear weapons before achieving its complete nuclear disarmament. But with the much-anticipated summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ending up in failure, the North is not returning to the dialogue table.
South Korea, as a mediator and facilitator in nuclear talks between the U.S. and the North, is seeking to bring Pyongyang back to the dialogue. But as of now, the North is only criticizing the South for "walking on too many eggshells for the U.S."
To tackle the recent deadlock in peace talks surrounding North Korea, President Moon will emphasize the need for the international community, including European countries, to continue backing the peace initiative on the peninsula.
As part of the efforts, President Moon will also raise awareness of the peace processes on the peninsula after arriving in his final destination in Sweden.
On his three-day visit to Stockholm from Thursday, Moon will deliver a speech at the Swedish parliament of Riksdag on the inter-Korean peace. His itinerary there also includes meetings with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven and King Carl XVI Gustaf.
