DPRK, US show determination to continue dialogue: ROK president

SEOUL - President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Moon Jae-in said Monday that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States have shown their determination to continue dialogue for peace on and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Addressing a regular meeting with his senior aides, Moon said it was clearly confirmed that the ROK, the DPRK and the United States all did not want to go back to the past although a temporary difficulty was created in the peninsula's peace process with the failure to reach an agreement during the second DPRK-US summit.

He noted that both the DPRK and the United States showed their determination to continue dialogue by managing situations stably so as not to increase tensions as seen in the past.

Moon's remarks came ahead of his upcoming visit to Washington for a summit meeting with US President Donald Trump scheduled for April 11 (Washington time).

Moon said his trip to Washington would come as the result of the efforts by the ROK and the United States to revive the momentum for dialogue between the DPRK and the United States at an early date.

He anticipated Pyongyang's positive response to the efforts by Seoul and Washington.

Moon's US trip was arranged after the second summit between top DPRK leader Kim Jong-un and Trump ended with no agreement in late February in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

The ROK president vowed to make efforts to help resume denuclearization negotiations between the DPRK and the United States.

Moon said the Korean Peninsula's peace process would become a journey, taken jointly by the two Koreas and the United States that would not be easy.

He noted that it would be rather strange if there were no ups and downs and difficulties during the journey given the fact that nobody succeeded for the past decades.

Moon said it has not been one year since the first summit between the current leaders of the two Koreas was held though some may feel a lot of time has passed with so many things having happened.

The astonishing changes, made for the past year, were the clear reason the dialogue should continue, Moon added.

Moon and Kim held their first summit last April in Panmunjom, a border village inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that has divided the peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean War which ended with armistice.

The two leaders had since held two more summit meetings in May and September last year each.