Moon, Trump set for talks on upcoming U.S.-N. Korea summit

By Byun Duk-kun

WASHINGTON, May 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump were set to hold talks here Tuesday that many believe could decide the fate of Trump's scheduled summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The South Korea-U.S. summit follows a series of harsh rhetoric from Pyongyang that may have raised questions about its commitment to denuclearization.

Moon arrived here Monday on a two-day visit.

"The important issue in the South Korea-U.S. summit is not the meeting itself, but the exchange of ideas between the two leaders on how best to keep the dialogue with North Korea going forward," Moon's top security adviser Chung Eui-yong told reporters.

Earlier, Moon's trip here was widely expected to be aimed at brokering a nuclear deal between Trump and Kim, who are set to meet for the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit in Singapore on June 12.

Now the focus may be on keeping the Trump-Kim meeting alive.

The South Korean president partly helped make the unprecedented U.S.-North Korea summit possible through his engagement policy that also led to his own bilateral summit with Kim, held at the border village of Panmunjom on April 27.

In the Panmunjom joint declaration, Moon and Kim agreed to pursue complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The Trump-Kim summit, if held, is widely expected to set terms for the North's denuclearization process.

Since the April 27 inter-Korean summit, however, the North has once again gone on the offensive, threatening to reconsider its summit with the U.S. It has also suspended high-level dialogue with South Korea, originally scheduled for last week.

Trump apparently sought to offer some reassurances to the North, saying the nuclear deal he had in mind for North Korea was not like any other denuclearization model and that Kim would be "very, very happy" if they reached a deal at their upcoming summit.

Still, some news reports suggested Trump, or at least his aides, may be having second thoughts about the U.S.-North Korea summit following the North's renewed rhetoric.

Chung has dismissed the reports, saying no such change in heart in the U.S. has been detected and that the U.S. president did not make any inquiries about a possible change in heart on the North Korean side in his latest telephone conversation with Moon held just three days earlier.

Moon was scheduled to meet with ranking U.S. officials prior to his bilateral meeting with Trump, according to officials from his presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, in an apparent attempt to again convince Trump's aides that North Korea may be serious about giving up its nuclear ambitions.

The Cheong Wa Dae officials said Moon will likely tell Trump what to expect and what not to expect when the latter meets Kim next month.

"We expect the South Korea-U.S. summit to play a role as a bridge (between the U.S. and North Korea) that will lead to the success of the North Korea-U.S. summit as it comes three weeks before the North Korea-U.S. summit," said Nam Gwan-pyo, a deputy director of the presidential National Security Office.

The Moon-Trump summit will begin with a 30-minute private meeting where the two leaders will be accompanied only by their interpreters, according to Cheong Wa Dae.

An expanded meeting involving other officials from both sides will be held later over lunch at the White House.

Moon will head back home later in the day.

bdk@yna.co.kr
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