President should urge early US-NK summit
South Korea is stepping up as a chief negotiator amid a prolonged deadlock in U.S.-North Korea denuclearization talks. Cheong Wa Dae confirmed that President Moon Jae-in will be meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the Nov. 30-Dec. 1 G20 summit in Argentina.
It will be the sixth Korea-U.S. meeting since Moon took office in May 2017. There are rising hopes that the meeting will serve as an impetus to move along the stalled talks between the U.S. and North Korea. It is expected that Moon will bring up the need for an early U.S.-North Korea summit to build on the first one held in June in Singapore. A meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of North Korea's Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, had been scheduled for early November in New York before the U.S. midterm elections but was scrapped at the last minute. There has been no headway in restarting bilateral negotiations since then due to the two sides' differences on denuclearization.
With the stalled U.S.-North Korea negotiations, it is feared that Moon's peace process is at the brink of coming to a halt. Many Koreans had initially held his active engagement with North Korea in a favorable light. But more are starting to turn their backs on the President's failing diplomacy with the North after several summits with Kim Jong-un did not lead to visible progress in denuclearization. His approval rating dropped to a record low in the 40 percent range last week, showing the public's growing discontent with Moon's leadership. In particular, many people are getting more frustrated with the Moon administration's disastrous performance on economic issues.
During these depressing times for President Moon, one of the few things he can still rely on for public approval is diplomatic achievements. That is perhaps one of the reasons that Moon is still strongly pursuing Kim's visit to Seoul this year. But Pyongyang has not made any clear moves on this yet, and Washington is also not forthcoming about it. Rather than focusing on this, Moon should, during the meeting with Trump, first reaffirm our government's commitment to work in tandem with the U.S. to achieve the two countries' shared goal of North Korea's denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula.
The Moon administration's rush for economic cooperation with North Korea is also frowned upon by many Koreans at a time when Washington is still firm on sanctions against Pyongyang. On Friday, a South Korean train headed for North Korea for a joint railway inspection for ultimately reconnecting rail lines aimed at expediting reconciliation of the two Koreas. Although the U.S. expressed support for the inspection, Washington has shown concern about the swift progress in inter-Korean relations amid international sanctions. Moon should assure President Trump that Seoul will be consulting closely with relevant parties concerned when proceeding with inter-Korean projects. He should also urge President Trump to meet with Kim again at an early date for a breakthrough in denuclearization talks.
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