South Korean President hopes for the fruitful new meeting with his US counterpart, Reuters reported. Following the Hanoi meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump, Moon Jae-in intends to revive U.S.-North Korea talks as soon as possible.
South Korean president Moon arrived in Washington where he will hold the talks with top US officials. On Thursday, Mr Moon scheduled to meet with the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton and Vice President Mike Pence. The one-to-one meeting with President Trump planned to be held on Thursday afternoon.
The White House has said Trump and Moon will discuss North Korea and bilateral issues, one of them is collapsing the Hanoi summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. Officials in Seoul were shocked by the breakdown of the February summit and some South Korean officials blame the influence of John Bolton, a hardliner who has long advocated a tough approach to North Korea.
Moon has put his political reputation on the line in encouraging negotiations between the United States and North Korea aimed at persuading Kim to give up a nuclear weapons program that now threatens the US. In fact, there were no positive moves in relations between Washington and Pyongyang.
According to Moon, he will use the meeting with his American counterpart to discuss restarting U.S.-North Korea talks, advancing a peace process and creating a “virtuous cycle” of improving relations with Pyongyang. He expressed the hope that North Korea would respond positively.
Moon’s visit to Washington coincides with a scheduled meeting of North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament and Pompeo said last week he hoped Kim would use the occasion to state publicly that “it would be the right thing” for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.
