Moon to meet with Trump in Washington on nuclear diplomacy

Moon Jae-in, president of the Republic of Korea, will travel to the United States in two weeks for a summit with US President Donald Trump on stalemated nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang, The Associated Press reported.

Both the ROK presidential Blue House and the White House have confirmed the visit.

It would be their first meeting since Trump's second summit with Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi last month ended with no agreement due to disputes on US-led sanctions, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Moon has said he would broker a compromise between the DPRK and the US for permanent peace on and complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

But the unsuccessful summit has put Moon, a liberal who has shuttled between Washington and Pyongyang, in a difficult position on how to further engage the DPRK and facilitate the nuclear diplomacy, AP said.

Moon's office said he will visit the US on April 10-11 to discuss how to strengthen their countries' alliance and achieve Pyongyang's complete denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

"The two leaders will have in-depth talks ... to coordinate their stance on setting up a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization," Yoon Do-han, the senior presidential news secretary said on Friday.

The White House said Trump and first lady Melania Trump will welcome Moon and his wife Kim Jung-sook to the White House on April 11.

"The alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea remains the linchpin of peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the region," the White House press secretary said in a statement.

Earlier this month, DPRK Vice-Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui threatened to pull out of the nuclear negotiations with the US, citing a lack of its corresponding steps to match some disarmament measures Pyongyang took last year. She said Kim would soon decide whether to continue the talks and his moratorium on nuclear and missile tests.

Moon's push to expand ties with Pyongyang and resume dormant inter-Korean economic projects is in doubt as US officials maintain that sanctions on the DPRK would stay in place unless the country takes significant denuclearization steps.

Liaison office

Pyongyang recently withdrew its entire staff from a frontline liaison office with Seoul before sending some of them back to the office. Seoul's Defense Ministry said on Friday that Pyongyang has not responded to its offer 11 days ago to hold military talks to discuss planned joint searches for Korean War dead at their border area.

Also on Friday, Seoul received the first two of the 40 F-35A fighter jets that it has agreed to buy from Lockheed Martin by 2021. The F-35A jets have become the country's first stealth fighter jets. Pyongyang has previously called the introduction of F-35A aircraft a plot by the ROK to attack the DPRK.

Some experts say Pyongyang still hopes to keep diplomacy with Washington alive because it wants sanctions relief to revive its economy.

In a possible reflection of its resolve to press ahead with its engagement policy on the DPRK, Seoul's Unification Ministry on Friday reiterated its position that it will push to hold a regular summit with Pyongyang and realize Kim's promise to travel to Seoul.

(China Daily 03/30/2019 page8)