South Korea鈥檚 Moon seeks 4th summit with Kim
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South Korean President Moon Jae-in said yesterday he鈥檚 ready for a fourth summit with Democratic People鈥檚 Republic of Korea leader Kim Jong Un to help salvage faltering nuclear negotiations between DPRK and the United States.
Moon鈥檚 comments came after Kim issued his harsh criticism of South Korea鈥檚 diplomatic role last week, accusing Seoul of acting like an 鈥渙verstepping mediator鈥 and demanding that it diverges from Washington to support the DPRK鈥檚 position more strongly.
Moon met Kim three times last year and also brokered nuclear talks between DPRK and the US following tensions created by the DPRK鈥檚 nuclear and missile tests and the exchange of war threats by Kim and Donald Trump.
鈥淲henever North Korea is ready, we hope that the south and north could sit down together and hold concrete and practical discussions on ways to achieve progress that goes beyond what was accomplished in the two summits between North Korea and the United States,鈥 Moon said in a meeting with senior aides.
Moon met Trump last week in Washington, where they agreed on the importance of nuclear talks with DPRK but did not announce a specific plan to get the stalemated negotiations back on track. Moon spent the past year making aggressive efforts to stabilize South Korea鈥檚 hard-won detente with DPRK and improve bilateral relations.
He also lobbied hard to set up the first summit between Kim and Trump last June, when they agreed to a vague statement about a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing how and when it would occur.
Trump and Kim met again in Vietnam in February, but the summit ended in vain.
Moon has said it is Seoul鈥檚 鈥渙utmost priority鈥 to prevent nuclear negotiations between the US and DPRK from derailing, and there is speculation he will soon announce a plan to send a special envoy to Pyongyang, in an effort to rescue the talks.
In their third summit last September, Moon and Kim agreed to reconnect the Koreas鈥 railways and roads, normalize operations at a jointly run factory park in the DPRK border town of Kaesong and restart South Korean tours to the North鈥檚 scenic Diamond Mountain resort, voicing optimism that international sanctions could end and allow such projects. But Moon鈥檚 call for partial sanctions relief to create space for the inter-Korean projects and induce nuclear disarmament steps by DPRK has led to a disagreement with Washington, which sees economic pressure as its main leverage with Pyongyang.
In a speech delivered to DPRK鈥檚 parliament last Friday, Kim said he is open to a third summit with Trump but set an end-of-year deadline for Washington to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement.
Kim blamed the collapse of the second summit with Trump on what he described as Washington鈥檚 unilateral demands. He said the DPRK鈥檚 economy would prevail despite the heavy US-led sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons program and that he wouldn鈥檛 鈥渙bsess over summitry with the United States out of thirst for sanctions relief.鈥
On South Korea, Kim said Seoul 鈥渟hould not act as an 鈥榦verstepping mediator鈥 or a 鈥榝acilitator鈥 and should rather get its mind straight as a member of the (Korean) nation and boldly speak up for the interest of the nation.鈥
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