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During a state visit to Singapore

President Moon Jae-in expressed confidence in the success of North Korea-US talks “if North Korea implements complete denuclearization and the international community joins in efforts for North Korea’s regime security.”

His remarks came on July 12, the one-month anniversary of the North Korea-US summit.

President Moon’s remarks came during a summit that day with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien-loong and meeting with President Halimah Yacob during the second day of a visit to Singapore as a guest of the state, Blue House Senior Secretary to the President for Public Relations Yoon Young-chan said. Yoon also quoted President Moon as saying North Korea-US talks were “now on their proper track.”

His remarks appeared intended to counter the reemergence of skepticism on the “pointlessness” of negotiating with Pyongyang and calls for sanctions in the US after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent visit to North Korea. They also read as a call for both North Korea and the US to be “patient” in their approach to talks.

“There was a good agreement between the North Korean and US leaders, but the working-level talks toward a concrete implementation plan haven’t gone entirely smoothly, and it will take some time,” President Moon said.

“The outcome of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s North Korea is a symbolic illustration of that,” he added. Pompeo visited North Korea for senior-level talks on July 6–7, but ended up returning without meeting with leader Kim Jong-un. A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s statement expressed deep disappointment, calling it “so regretful to mention what the U.S. side had shown in its attitude and stand.”

“While assessments have been mixed, I see the two sides as having entered a normal process, and I believe full-scale concrete working-level discussions have begun,” President Moon said.

“There were some questions in the past about whether North Korea’s idea of denuclearization was the same concept as the denuclearization the US and South Korea were talking about, but Secretary Pompeo’s latest North Korea visit showed there are no differences in the denuclearization concept,” he added.

President Moon interpreted North Korea’s objections as part of a “negotiating strategy.”

“Although North Korea did denounce the US in its Foreign Ministry statement, a look at the content shows they were complaining that the US isn’t adopting corresponding measures for the practical, good-faith measures [North Korea] is taking, which I see as the kind of strategy you can expect in a process of negotiation,” he said. In its statement, the North Korean Foreign Ministry left the possibility of negotiations open, stating that the North Korean leaders “still cherish our good faith in President Trump.”

President Moon also said, “Another important thing to note is that the corresponding measures North Korea is demanding from the US aren’t the kind of lifting of sanctions or economic compensation it has called for in the past, but an end to hostile relations and the building of trust, which is very different from North Korea’s part approach to negotiations.”

His remarks were seen as calling on Washington to adopt a more progressive stance on the matters of a declaration ending the Korean War or a peace agreement.

In a summit at the Istana that day, President Moon and Prime Minister Lee Hsien-loong agreed to step up cooperation in transportation and infrastructure industry and Fourth Industrial Revolution spheres including artificial intelligence, cutting-edge manufacturing, and big data.

“A month ago today, a historic North Korea-US summit was held in Singapore,” President Moon noted, expressing gratitude to Lee and the Singaporean public for their “great support in opening up a new era in peace on the Korean Peninsula.”

Speaking at the South Korea-Singapore Business Forum, President Moon described the North Korea-US summit as “a great achievement realized together with Singapore,” noting that Singaporeans had “commemorated it with different menu items like ‘peace burgers’ and ‘Kim Jong-un/Trump lattes.”

He also made calls for active investment.

“If complete denuclearization and peace are achieved on the Korean Peninsula, new horizons will open up and more opportunities will arise in terms of our economic cooperation,” he predicted.

By Seong Yeon-cheol, staff reporter

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