By Kim Bo-eun
President Moon Jae-in's proposal for a possible three-way summit with the leaders of North Korea and the United States is being viewed as part of the big picture to end the current armistice between the Koreas and achieve lasting peace on the peninsula, analysts said Thursday.
“Depending on the circumstances, the Seoul-Pyongyang and Pyongyang-Washington summits could lead to a three-way summit between North and South Korea and the U.S.,” Moon said at a meeting on Wednesday preparing for the inter-Korean summit in April.
“Through the upcoming summits and those that will follow, we must put an end to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.”
The 1950-1953 Korean war ended in an armistice, technically still leaving the North and South at war.
“The mentioning of a possible three-way summit is seen as part of efforts to use the current momentum to make achievements in denuclearization and achieve peace and possibly make a statement on the end of the Korean War,” Kim Hyun-wook, professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, said.
President Moon is known to favor the policies his liberal predecessors -- including former President Roh Moo-hyun -- had toward North Korea. Moon's reference to a three-way summit can be traced back to an agreement from a former inter-Korean summit.
The statement produced from the second summit between Roh and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's father Kim Jong-il in October 2007 said “We agree that we should put an end to the current state of armistice and establish a lasting system of peace, and to cooperate so that the leaders of the three or four directly-involved countries meet on the Korean peninsula to state the end of the war,”
The three are North Korea, China and the U.S. and the fourth refers to South Korea.
Professor Kim said “Considering current circumstances, it seems more likely for the three states to come together. This is because China has its own stance on North Korea, and it will take much more time to fine-tune matters if China were to be included.”
“It is more feasible that the three states come together, riding on the current momentum.”
Roh failed to arrange a three-way summit, as his presidential term ended only months after his summit, followed by the beginning of the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration.
However, because the summits between North and South Korea and North Korea and the U.S. will take place within a year since Moon took office, he has plenty of time amid favorable circumstances to achieve this goal.
In Moon's speech in Berlin last July, he stated that the agreements reached at the first and second inter-Korean summits should be followed through with.