Seoul eyes '99.9% chance of Kim-Trump meeting taking place as planned'

President Moon Jae-in and first lady Kim Jung-sook disembark from the presidential flight after arriving at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Tuesday, for Moon's summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. / Yonhap

‘NK-US summit very likely to be held despite standoff'

By Kim Rahn

WASHINGTON, D.C. ― President Moon Jae-in arrived in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump today about North Korea's denuclearization.

His visit comes almost three weeks before Trump's planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore, June 12, following Moon's April 27 summit with Kim.

The allies are tasked with setting a joint strategy to make the Washington-Pyongyang summit successful, and how they will carry out agreements reached at it afterward.

Although the two leaders talked about the issue over the phone many times and their aides have been doing so as well, the face-to-face talks are expected to help them build more trust in the joint strategy.

"In usual summits, working- and high-level officials make almost all agreements in advance; but there is no pre-set scenario for this meeting, and Moon and Trump will exchange their ideas spontaneously," Moon's security chief Chung Eui-yong told reporters on a plane bound for the U.S. capital.

First the two leaders will share their views of the current situation in which Pyongyang has suddenly changed from the months-long reconciliatory stance to a rather hostile one, threatening to reconsider the Kim-Trump summit and refusing talks with Seoul. This was in protest against some hawkish U.S. officials who advocate applying the "Libyan model" for the denuclearization of North Korea, under which compensation would not be provided until the North removes all of its nuclear weapons.

Moon and Trump will have to discuss detailed and practical ways to achieve the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement (CVID) of North Korea's nuclear arsenal, and not to repeat the failure of past denuclearization talks.

They will also talk about concessions and compensations the allies can offer to the North in return for giving up the weapons. The two countries have said North Korea can have a "bright future" and become a normal country if it achieves CVID.

At the inter-Korean talks, Seoul pledged close cooperation to improve its relations with the North and help its economic development, while Washington officials have also talked about allowing private American investment in the reclusive country in the case of CVID.

Despite North Korea's recent protests, Chung said the chances of the North cancelling the Trump-Kim summit is almost zero, showing a positive expectation.

Asked about the chance of the Trump-Kim summit being held amid North Korea's protests, Chung said, "We see a 99.9 percent of chance of it happening."

Regarding some American media reports that Trump and his aides are skeptical about the outcome of the summit considering North Korea's changing attitude, Chung said Seoul officials have not felt such skepticism so far in their contacts with Washington officials.

As to North Korea's changed stance, Chung said, "We are trying to understand the North's position."

Besides the summit with Trump, Moon is scheduled to meet the American president's aides, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton.

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