South Korean president eyes Trump-Kim meeting before end of 2018
Xinhua
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(Photo: Xinhua)

NEW YORK, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in said here on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump and the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong Un, could meet before the end of this year.

In an interview with Fox News, Moon said he believed the meeting could take place before the end of this year, noting "I look forward to a summit meeting taking place between Chairman Kim and President Trump in the not-too-distant future."

Moon claimed that he felt he had "ascertained Chairman Kim's commitment to complete denuclearization."

"If the United States could take corresponding measures, then I believe we will be able to expedite North Korea (the DPRK) by further denuclearization measures," Moon told Fox News.

For the United States, they promised to end its hostile relations with the DPRK to provide security guarantees and also work towards a new US-DPRK relations, Moon said. "So, although, all these actions would not happen simultaneously, broadly I believe that these actions need to be taken in parallel."

"So if the United States could provide this kind of trust, I believe that we will be able to accelerate the denuclearization process. This is why I believe that the denuclearization is achievable within the first term of President Trump's term," the South Korean president noted.

Earlier on Tuesday, Moon, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, a US-based think tank in New York, said that the current diplomatic engagement with the DPRK is "completely different" with the previous ones.

He said that declaring to end the 1950-53 Korean War in a formal manner would encourage the DPRK to speed up denuclearization.

Setting a timetable for US "corresponding measures" and the DPRK's denuclearization process would be "a task for the second US-North Korea summit," Moon said.

Trump said Tuesday that his second summit with Kim will be announced "pretty soon," yet the summit is likely to take place in a different place.

Moon said that "now, North Korea's decision to relinquish its nuclear program has been officialized to a degree that not even those within North Korea can reverse."

"Chairman Kim also repeatedly conveyed his unwavering trust and expectations for you (Trump), while expressing his hope to meet you soon to swiftly conclude the denuclearization process with you," Moon said. "I look forward to seeing the US-North Korea summit take place, and wish you a great success."

At the conclusion of the historic Trump-Kim summit in June in Singapore, the two sides issued a joint statement, agreeing to improve bilateral relations and work together to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the peninsula.

However, US-DPRK talks have been stuck in an impasse due to their differences over the scale of denuclearization, US sanctions, and whether to issue a war-ending declaration.

In August, just one day after Pompeo announced his visit to the DPRK, Trump tweeted that he had asked Pompeo not to go due to the insufficient progress with the DPRK.

During his Sept. 18-20 trip to Pyongyang, Moon held talks with Kim, and signed the Pyongyang Declaration, an advancement towards the Korean Peninsula's denuclearization and concrete measures to end hostile acts near the inter-Korean border areas.

Pompeo said later in response that the United States is ready to transform its relations with the DPRK immediately.

He added that he had invited DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho to meet in New York City where they are scheduled to attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting.