Trump, Moon agree not to seek 'offensive stance' against North Korea

South Korean President Moon Jae-in shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump at the InterContinental Barclay hotel during the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday (KST), in New York. AP-Yonhap

Seoul's spy agency hints at Kim Jong-un's visit to Busan

By Kim Yoo-chul, Do Je-hae

NEW YORK/SEOUL ― President Donald Trump agreed with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in not to pursue an "offensive stance" against North Korea, noting Washington is "getting along very well" with Pyongyang, Cheong Wa Dae said Tuesday (KST).

"President Moon Jae-in and President Donald Trump reaffirmed their previous promises on North Korea. Both Seoul and Washington will not take an offensive stance against Pyongyang. Also, they agreed that North Korea can have a bright future if it takes visible and concrete steps toward denuclearization," Kim Hyun-chong, second deputy head of the National Security Office, told reporters in a briefing after the two leaders' summit.

The meeting at the InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel lasted 65 minutes and also covered the issue of cost-sharing for the 28,500 U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea. Moon told Trump that Seoul was ready to pay more unless the U.S. demanded an unreasonably high increase.

Trump told Moon he was expecting to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for another summit, saying he maintains a "good relationship with Kim." But Trump didn't specify when the meeting would take place.

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"Well, we'll see. Right now, people would like to see that happen. I want to know what's going to be coming out of it. We can know a lot before the summit takes place. There's been no nuclear testing at all for the last quite a long period of time, at least that we can detect. So, we'll see what happens. But we'd like to see if we can do something. And if we can, that would be great. And if we can't, that's fine," Trump said in response to a question about the possibility of a fourth meeting with Kim.

Earlier expectations were that the two leaders would discuss ways to guarantee North Korea's security as a means to advancing the denuclearization process. Trump and Kim are both allegedly committed to reaching "some kind of deal."

North Korea has said it will consider denuclearization if "all threats" to the country are removed, asking Washington to come up with a "new way" for talks on this to proceed. Cheong Wa Dae said Moon and Trump didn't go into detail about this concept. Also, neither leader brought up the resumption of tourism to Mount Geumgang or reopening the joint industrial complex in Gaeseong, both located in North Korea.

Regarding the North's latest launches of short-range missiles, the U.S. president downplayed their significance. "We didn't have an agreement on short-range missiles. And a lot of people and countries test short-range missiles. There's nothing spectacular about that. I didn't really discuss that with Kim Jong-un. That was never a part of our discussion. We did discuss nuclear testing and other things."

Trump talked about the renegotiated free trade agreement with Seoul and added the two countries will be discussing the purchase of military equipment. "South Korea is one of our largest purchasers of military equipment. And we're working together very well," he said.

Moon responded by saying the Washington-Seoul alliance has been evolving "in a great way," especially in the economic field. He mentioned South Korea's decision to increase imports of liquefied natural gas from the U.S. and a deal regarding a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and a U.S. carmaker.

A few hours after the Moon-Trump summit, Seoul's spy agency said it was looking into the possibility of the North's Kim visiting Busan for the South Korea-ASEAN leaders' summit in November.

"Kim Jong-un may come to Busan, but this would be dependent upon the level of progress in the denuclearization talks. Assuming there is visible progress in the nuclear disarmament talks, the North Korean leader could decide to participate in the upcoming summit," the National Intelligence Service told lawmakers at the National Assembly Information Committee, adding working-level denuclearization talks between the U.S. and North Korea would resume in two weeks at the earliest.

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