Crucial month awaits Korean Peninsula
By Lee Min-hyung
A series of arranged meetings scheduled for this month will determine the fate of the Korean Peninsula, with leaders from the two Koreas, China, Japan and the U.S. set to discuss details of Pyongyang's pledge for denuclearization.
Starting Wednesday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in will have a trilateral summit in Tokyo with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Leaders of the Asian countries will discuss their positions and roles on the North's recent shift in its nuclear policy.
According to Japanese local media, the three leaders will push for adopting a joint declaration urging the North to carry out complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID).
On the table, they are expected to narrow their differences on how to push the regime to realize its denuclearization pledge.
The trilateral talks have been held annually since 2008, but were discontinued after November 2015 when Seoul was the host country of the event.
South Korea, however, is in a position to continue dialogue with the North to realize the recent Panmunjeom Declaration under which both Koreas agreed to completely denuclearize the peninsula and put an end to any military attacks and provocations against each other.
Cheong Wa Dae said last week the government does not have any plans to adopt a trilateral agreement with the CVID message again the North.
“We will push for adopting a special declaration to support the Panmunjeom Declaration,” presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said.
The inter-Korean declaration came late last month when President Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a series of peace agreements on the southern part of the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjeom.
But the declaration did not contain any details on how the regime will realize denuclearization.
The South's Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said last week the agenda on the regime's CVID will be discussed at the upcoming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sometime early next month.
The time and location for the first-ever summit between Washington and Pyongyang have yet to be unveiled. Expectations are that the two leaders are likely to adopt a series of documented agreements on the regime's denuclearization during the upcoming summit.
On Saturday, Trump said Washington reached a consensus with Pyongyang over the schedule for the upcoming summit.
“We have a date,” Trump said. “And we have a location. We will be announcing it very soon.”
Ahead of the U.S.-North Korea summit, Seoul and Washington also plan to hold a meeting on May 22.
According to the White House, Moon will meet with Trump in Washington on that date to discuss details for the Washington-Pyongyang summit.
Chances are that President Moon will talk with Kim Jong-un on a recently established hotline before visiting Washington, in a move to reaffirm the latter's strong determination for denuclearization.