Moon-Trump meeting to facilitate US-NK summit

By Kim Bo-eun

The meeting between President Moon Jae-in and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on May 22 is expected to play a mediating role for Trump's following summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The South Korean leader will especially have to help Washington and Pyongyang narrow their gaps on “how” to denuclearize the latter, by briefing Trump on the outcome of the inter-Korean summit held on April 27. At that summit, the two Koreas agreed on complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and formally ending to the Korean War.

Moon's task ahead is a tall one. With all related parties having embarked on fierce diplomatic posturing, North Korea's official news agency on Sunday criticized the “misleading” claims that Trump's policy of maximum political pressure and sanctions are what drove the North to the negotiating table.

For the success, Moon and Trump are likely to fine-tune the detailed process of denuclearization and a timeframe for it, with American media reporting Trump wants to address the issue within his term, meaning less than three years are left.

National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong met with his U.S. counterpart John Bolton in Washington upon Bolton's request, in an apparent move to arrange the Moon-Trump summit and possibly to discuss North Korea's denuclearization process.

Attention is growing over the architecture of the denuclearization process, as the newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who met Kim in Pyongyang in late March, recently altered the wording Washington has been using in its stance on Pyongyang's denuclearization.

“We are committed to the permanent, verifiable, irreversible dismantling of North Korea's weapons of mass destruction program and to do so without delay,” Pompeo said at his inauguration ceremony, using the term “permanent” instead of “complete.” Washington so far has called for complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement (CVID) of Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Regarding Pompeo's using of “permanent” instead of “complete,” Kyungnam University professor Kim Dong-yub said, “Permanent dismantlement could be a more realistic approach than complete, because it appears physically impossible for North Korea to completely dismantle all of its nuclear facilities within Trump's term.”

North Korea has declared it will suspend nuclear and missile tests, as well as shut down its Punggye-ri nuclear testing site. Although it is expected to allow international experts and journalists to inspect the shutdown of the facilities, an agreement has not yet been reached on inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Professor Kim said the Pyongyang-Washington summit could produce an agreement for North Korea to permanently dismantle its nuclear weapons in return for signing of a peace treaty and normalizing of relations between North Korea and the U.S.

Meanwhile, President Trump repeatedly confirmed that the date and the venue of his summit with Kim has been decided and will be announced soon. Diplomatic watchers are cautiously forecasting it to take place after the May 22 Moon-Trump summit, possibly even in June. Possible venues are Singapore and the truce village of Panmunjeom, according to media reports.

On Wednesday, Moon will have a trilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Tokyo to seek their cooperation in carrying out the follow-up measures of the April 27 Panmunjeom Declaration.

Moon is also set to further discuss with Li the issue of China playing a role in the process of declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War and signing a peace treaty. Moon and Chinese President Xi Jinping talked about the issue over the phone last Friday.

The Panmunjeom Declaration states the Koreas will pursue tripartite meetings involving the U.S. or quadrilateral meetings involving the three plus China with the aim of putting an end to the war, and replacing the armistice with a peace treaty.

Lee Geun, a professor at Seoul National University's Graduate School of International Studies, said the Seoul-Washington summit may discuss China's role in the process.