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As the countdown continues to North Korea’s end-of-the-year deadline for dialogue with the US, attention is turning to the telephone conversation that South Korean President Moon Jae-in had with US President Donald Trump on Dec. 7. As of Dec. 8, a day later, the Blue House hadn’t disclosed the details of their conversation.

The main question is what Trump, who requested the phone call in the first place, may have told Moon. A key official at the Blue House said that the two leaders “talked about quite a lot for 30 minutes” but refused to specify what they discussed. Some observers think that Trump asked Moon to mediate the resumption of dialogue.

But considering how icy inter-Korean relations are — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un not only turned down Moon’s request, delivered via a personal letter, to attend a South Korea-ASEAN summit in Busan but also rejected the South Korean proposal for dialogue about the potential demolition of facilities at the Mt. Kumgang tourist resort — it doesn’t seem likely that Trump would have made such a request. And since the US has shown its lack of interest in the end-of-the-year deadline on several occasions, it probably hasn’t suddenly become amenable to North Korea’s demands to ease sanctions and call off joint military exercises with South Korea.

“At President Trump’s request, President Moon spoke with him on the phone for 30 minutes at 11 am and discussed in detail ways to move the Korean Peninsula peace process forward. The two leaders are both aware of the grave situation on the Korean Peninsula in recent weeks, and they agree about the need to maintain momentum in dialogue in order to quickly achieve results in the North Korea-US denuclearization talks,” Blue House Spokesperson Ko Min-jung said on Dec. 7.

Another potential factor is a visit to South Korea by US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun (nominated to be deputy secretary of state). South Korea and the US are reportedly making the final adjustments to the schedule of Biegun’s visit, which will likely take place in the third week of December. Some think that Biegun could meet with North Korean officials in Panmunjom and deliver a message from Trump.

“Since North Korea has put the ball in the US’ court and is making a serious push for a change of attitude, Biegun might try sending a personal letter from Trump to Kim,” said Cho Sung-ryul, a research consultant for the Institute for National Security Strategy.

By Seong Yeon-cheol and Park Min-hee, staff reporters

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