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President Moon walks in the presidential garden with Im Jong-seok

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump will be meeting again in the middle of next month. Chronologically speaking, this will be somewhere between the inter-Korean summit on Apr. 27 and the North Korea-US summit that is likely to happen in late May or early June. During their summit, Trump and Moon are expected to discuss the results of the inter-Korean summit, which will involve the discussion of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and a peace regime, and to talk about strategies for the success of the North Korea-US summit.

If the string of summits between South and North Korea, South Korea and the US, and North Korea and the US create a virtuous cycle, the summit among the three parties that Moon mentioned could become a real possibility, bringing the Korean Peninsula to the peak of a giving spring. The Blue House announced on Apr. 25 that this had been discussed during a meeting between Blue House National Security Office Director Chung Eui-yong and White House National Security Advisor John Bolton in Washington on Apr. 24.

“Chung Eui-yong, who is currently visiting the US, met with John Bolton at 3 pm on Apr. 24, and the two exchanged views for about an hour. Chung and Bolton finished aligning their views about preparations for the inter-Korean summit, including ways for the two sides to closely cooperate on achieving the goal of the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula,” said Senior Secretary to the President for Public Relations Yoon Young-chan during the daily briefing.

“The two of them also agreed for Moon and Trump to speak on the phone shortly after the inter-Korean summit and discuss the results, and they deliberated a way to arrange a meeting between Moon and Trump prior to the North Korea-US summit,” Yoon added.

Since Chung is on the official list of figures who are supposed to accompany Moon to the inter-Korean summit on Apr. 27, his visit to the US was unexpected. Chung had met Bolton, the newly appointed National Security Advisor, in Washington on Apr. 12, less than a fortnight earlier.

“Chung Eui-yong’s visit to the US reflects the president’s wish not only for the success of the inter-Korean summit but also for the success of the North Korea-US summit. Continuing deliberations are necessary for the North Korea-US summit to be successful,” said a senior official at the Blue House.

“South Korea and the US are in close contact about what is being discussed by South and North Korea given regular fluctuations, so meeting face-to-face can make for better understanding than speaking on the phone,” the official said. It can be inferred that the situation had reached the point where senior officials from the Blue House and the White House needed to engage in urgent face-to-face deliberations about the specific agenda items that are being arranged by South and North Korea prior to the summit, including denuclearization and a declaration of the end of the Korean War.

This may have been related to the declaration of the end of the war that Moon mentioned during a phone call with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Apr. 24. “Declaring the end of the war is not something that can be resolved through dialogue between South and North Korea alone; to be successful, there at least needs to be an agreement between South Korea, North Korea and the US,” Moon said. This means that Moon may have needed a preliminary consultation with the US before proposing a declaration of the end of the war and a summit with South Korea, North Korea and the US during his meeting with Kim Jong-un on Apr. 27.

By Kim Bo-hyeop, staff reporter

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