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SEOUL / WASHINGTON – South Korean President Moon Jae-in called on the United States to move closer to the nuclear-armed demands of the North for the declaration that the Korean War would be over, the allies seeking an increasingly different approach to Pyongyang.
Washington refrained from formally announcing that the 1950-53 conflict, when hostilities ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, ended, saying the North must first take more action to give up his atomic arsenal.
For its part, Pyongyang – who has long insisted on the need for nuclear weapons to defend against a possible US invasion – pledged to work solely for the denuclearization of the "Korean peninsula", requiring simultaneous Washington in return, priority being given to a declaration of peace. .
"The North has stopped all nuclear testing and missile testing, has dismantled its only nuclear test site and is dismantling its missile engine testing facilities, and promises to take action to dismantle its Yongbyon nuclear complex if the United States takes corresponding measures, "Moon told BBC newspaper on Friday.
"Declaring the end of the war is a political declaration that the United States will put an end to decades of hostile relations with the North," he said.
"The United States should take the corresponding step," he added, according to a transcript published by Blue House, the president.
The comments, made on Saturday before Moon's departure for a tour of European capitals, highlight the growing differences between Seoul and Washington, which has 28,500 troops posted to the south to defend it from its neighbor.
Experts say the northern offerings will have little impact on its military capabilities, and Pyongyang itself said it no longer needed to test its weapons.
But Moon said Kim understood that denuclearization meant more than shutting down testing facilities.
It also includes "dismantling facilities that produce nuclear weapons and develop missiles," he said, "and that includes everything else, such as the elimination of nuclear weapons and nuclear materials."
Pyongyang made no such statement in public and missiles were included in the propaganda posters presented in the capital last month, during the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea . .
Moon dovish has long favored relations with the North, subject to multiple US Security Council sanctions for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and visited Pyongyang last month for its third meeting with the United States. the leader Kim Jong Un.
Moon has launched major investments and many joint cross-border projects to encourage denuclearization. Seoul opened a joint office in Kaesong, a border town in North Korea, last month, and promises to continue cross-border road and rail projects.
Earlier this week, Moon's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told the National Assembly that Seoul is reviewing its own sanctions against the North. She then backtracked saying that she had misjudged and her department stated that no active review was in place.
In response to Kang's remarks, Trump said, "They will not do it without our approval. They do nothing without our approval.
The United States, which spearheaded global efforts to squeeze the North Korean economy last year, insisted that sanctions remain in place until Pyongyang's "final and fully verified denuclearization".
But after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Pyongyang, Trump said this week that a second summit between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could take place after the mid-term elections organized by the United States. United at the beginning of November.
Trump's national security advisor said in an interview broadcast Friday that the US leader will hold the second summit with Kim "in the coming months".
"We will see a meeting, I think, between President Kim and President Trump in the coming months," said John Bolton in a radio interview, suggesting that this meeting may not be held by the end of the year.
Bolton made the remark Thursday, two days after Trump said he wanted to meet Kim after the mid-term US elections on Nov. 6 and he was considering three or four possible venues for the event.
Speaking at a national radio show hosted by Hugh Hewitt, Bolton stressed the need for North Korea to denuclearize itself in a "complete and irreversible manner."
"If they do it and go through the door" opened by Trump at the first summit with Kim in June in Singapore, "the future could be very different for the North Korean people," he said. declared.
Bolton said Trump was "optimistic" about his diplomacy with North Korea, but that the president "has no star in his eyes".
"Mike Pompeo either, neither Jim Mattis, nor me either," he said about the state secretaries and the secretary of defense.
Kim and Trump exchanged personal insults and threats of war last year before a quick rapprochement that culminated in their first historic meeting in Singapore in June, although their critics said their joint statement had not seen Kim's to engage in denuclearization without concrete measures.
Moon expects Kim and Trump to make "bold deals" at the next summit, he told the BBC, adding that he remains "very optimistic" about their discussions.
Seoul announced separately that the two Koreas would hold high-level talks at the border on Monday to discuss how to implement the agreements reached at the Pyongyang summit last month, when Moon and Kim promised to meet again in Seoul. at an early date ".
South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myung-gyon will lead the Seoul delegation to the meeting in the village of Panmunjom, a truce at the border, his ministry said in a statement. It was not known yet which North Korean officials would participate.
