Moon, Trump to hold summit in Argentina
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South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks to Korean residents in Prague at Hilton Prague Hotel, Nov. 28. Yonhap
By Kim Yoo-chul
By Kim Yoo-chul
PRAGUE ― President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a summit on the sidelines of this year's G20 summit to be held in Buenos Aires this week, according to Cheong Wa Dae and the White House, Wednesday.
Trump will meet Moon right after his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the allies said.
The announcement raised expectations that a possible breakthrough in stalled denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang may be achieved.
“There will be a summit between Moon and Trump. The exact time and venue for the meeting has not been fixed yet, but it will follow the planned Trump-Xi meeting,” chief presidential press secretary Yoon Young-chan said.
“The two leaders will have discussions on how to advance the stalled denuclearization talks. Moon also plans to deliver his hopes and expectations for Trump's second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.”
Trump said earlier he was hoping to have another summit with Kim “early next year.”
Yoon declined to comment further on details to be discussed during the summit.
Earlier expectations were that Moon would seek a phased and synchronized approach to the North at his planned summits during the G20 session as he hopes to take on the role of a “neutral facilitator” once again to keep the momentum of the denuclearization process alive.
Moon pitched a “sanctions-easing” agenda during his recent trip to Europe. The agenda, aimed at inducing the North to accelerate its plans for nuclear disarmament, appears to have opened a long-simmering rift between Seoul and Washington amid the ongoing “maximum pressure” campaign against the North being pursued by the U.S.
One Cheong Wa Dae official told The Korea Times the Moon-Trump meeting will take place Dec. 1 (KST) and added Moon is expected to urge Trump to officially declare an end to the Korean War as an “incentive” for North Korea to denuclearize.
U.S. President Donald Trump and his daughter Tiffany Trump attend the 96th annual National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony near the White House in Washington, U.S., Nov. 28, 2018. REUTERS-Yonhap
In the meantime, Moon is expected to stress the significance of taking a “step-by-step” approach toward denuclearization as well as details of what Pyongyang wants from Washington in return, as improved trilateral relations between the two Koreas and the United States would be a powerful step toward the North's denuclearization.
Kim is said to desire a declaration ending the Korean War, which was halted by an armistice in 1953 not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula technically still at war.
But such a demand has received a lukewarm response from the United States. Washington wants Pyongyang to announce more concrete and detailed steps toward final, fully verified denuclearization (FFVD) first.
Separately, National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong, South Korea's top nuclear envoy, plans to deliver Kim's repeated commitment to drop the regime's nuclear program, quickly, and to build new relations with Washington, according to the official on the condition of anonymity.
The key motivations behind the North Korean leader's vigorous pitch for an end-of-war declaration are driven by Moon's continued push for greater inter-Korean engagement, as well as a desire to shift the main discussion points to non-nuclear issues such as those relating to economic development, political analysts said.
The South Korean leader earlier said he will develop discussions to make the declaration happen by the end of this year with Trump and Xi.
But it remains to be seen whether or not Moon will ask Trump to lift economic sanctions on the North. Moon arrived here, the capital city of the Czech Republic, en route to Argentina for the G20 summit.
He is scheduled to hold a summit with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, late Wednesday (KST).