hankyoreh

Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyum gestures to a sign displaying the official slogan

Twelve days before the inter-Korean summit on Apr. 27, the Blue House has entered the final stages of coordination. Amid a flurry of working-level and high-level meetings about communications, protocol, security and reporting, the Blue House is working to set the mood by unveiling a platform for communicating with the public about the summit.

Over this weekend, President Moon Jae-in cleared his schedule and remained in his residence as he continued planning for the summit. He is reportedly focusing on a way to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and a permanent peace treaty, which South Korea regards as the main agenda items, and on a strategy facilitate results in the subsequent North Korea-US summit.

During the press briefing on Apr. 15, Blue House spokesperson Kim Eui-kyum said that South and North Korea held a working-level meeting about communication at the Tongilgak building in the Panmunjeom Joint Security Area on Apr. 14. During the meeting, which began at 10:30 am and lasted for 3 hours and 30 minutes, the two sides agreed to hold one more round of technical talks about communication. South and North Korea previously agreed to set up a hotline connecting Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and for the two leaders to speak on the phone before their summit.

“It doesn’t seem likely that a phone call will take place this week. They will speak on the phone before the summit, however,” said a senior official at the Blue House.

South and North Korea held working-level talks in the areas of protocol, security and reporting on Apr. 7 and are planning to hold more talks in these areas at the Tongilgak on Apr. 18. In addition to this, a second round of high-level talks will take place in a separate meeting, the Blue House said. “That could happen on Apr. 19 or Apr. 20,” a senior official at the Blue House said.

During the countdown to the inter-Korean summit, Moon is reportedly thinking about an overarching approach to denuclearization. His belief is that the inter-Korean summit must accomplish as much as possible for the North Korea-US summit to get tangible results. He is also taking steps to reaffirm cooperation with the US. During a recent visit to the US, Blue House National Security Office director Chung Eui-yong was introduced to John Bolton, the newly appointed White House National Security Advisor. A senior official in the Blue House explained that the meeting “was aimed at coordinating their respective opinions about how to proceed with not only South Korea-US relations but also the inter-Korean summit and the North Korea-US summit following Bolton’s appointment.”

In connection with this, the Blue House announced that it had settled on “peace, a new beginning” as the slogan of the inter-Korean summit.

“This is the first meeting between the leaders of South and North Korea in 11 years and will guide the way to the North Korea-US summit. As such, it bears the significance of the beginning of a journey toward world peace. The slogan conveys the feelings of all Koreans who hope that after 11 years this will be an opportunity to start moving toward peace,” said Kim Eui-kyum.

This slogan, which was written with a brush on calligraphy paper, will be used as the background of the government’s official briefing and on various promotional materials. In connection with this, the Preparatory Committee for the 2018 Inter-Korean Summit (chaired by presidential chief of staff Lim Jong-seok) announced that it will be launching an online platform for the inter-Korean summit (www.koreasummit.kr) at noon on Apr. 17 to provide the public with breaking news about the summit in real time and with convenient access to material about past inter-Korean summits.

In partnership with Korea.net (run by the Korean Culture and Information Service, under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), the website will be presenting the highlights to the foreign press in nine languages: English, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, French, German, Japanese and Vietnamese.

By Kim Bo-hyeop, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]