hankyoreh

South Korean President Moon Jae-in (center) presides over an emergency meeting of the standing committee of the National Security Council on May 25 regarding Trump’s cancellation of the North Korea-US summit. (provided by the Blue House)

On May 25, the Blue House expressed its intention to rekindle the embers of dialogue as it called for direct communication between the leaders of North Korea and the US. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has sought to take the “driver’s seat” to push for peace on the Korean Peninsula, declared his intention to use every available means to sustain the possibility of a North Korea-US summit.

“Given the difficulty of the situation, the president thinks that the two leaders should find a way to communicate directly and engage in close dialogue,” said a senior official at the Blue House in a meeting with reporters on May 25. In other words, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump ought to clear away the misunderstandings and misrepresentations and confirm each other’s sincerity through direct dialogue.

“Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and permanent peace are historical tasks that can neither be abandoned nor delayed. The sincerity of the parties who have striven to resolve those problems remains unchanged,” President Moon said during an emergency meeting of the standing committee of the National Security Council held on May 25.

During a meeting of the standing committee on the afternoon of May 25 that was presided over by National Security Office Director Chung Eui-yong, the committee “agreed that it is important for efforts to improve inter-Korean relations to continue in keeping with the Apr. 27 Panmunjeom Declaration and that such efforts will help improve North Korea-US relations and achieve the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Senior Secretary for Public Relations Yoon Young-chan reported.

This appears to reflect a decision to use the improvement of inter-Korean relations as leverage to change the positions of North Korea and the US. “As long as a sliver of hope is left, we won’t give up our efforts [to bring about the North Korea-US summit],” said a senior official at the Blue House.

Trump’s surprise announcement of the cancellation of the North Korea-US summit on the evening of May 24 reportedly came as a major shock to the Blue House. The shock was aggravated by the fact that this “bad news” came a single day after Moon and Trump agreed to strive for the success of the North Korea-US summit during their summit on the previous day. Not only did the White House fail to inform South Korea of the decision to cancel the North Korea-US summit in advance, but it only notified the South Korean embassy in the US at the same time as the press.

This means that the Blue House was officially notified of the news after the press. Even though a senior Blue House official reported that “President Trump asked Ambassador Cho Yoon-je to quickly pass the news to President Moon,” there were signs of exasperation inside the Blue House.

Even so, the Blue House has come around to the position of continuing its efforts to mediate between North Korea and the US. President Moon’s view of the problem is that advisors on both sides made a series of hardline remarks about agenda items, including the scope of denuclearization, during the preparations for the North Korea-US summit, which frustrated the two leaders’ wishes and built a wall of distrust between them. This is the presumed context of President Moon’s remark that “It is not feasible to resolve sensitive and difficult foreign policy issues through the current method of communication.”