SEOUL, September 22 (AJP) - South Korean President Lee Jae Myung offers to act as a mediator between the United States and North Korea in hopes to relive the historic scene of the leaders of two Koreas and U.S. standing side by side on Korean soil during the upcoming APEC summit in Gyeongju.
In an interview with the BBC released Monday, Lee said he would accept a deal between Washington and Pyongyang under which North Korea freezes its nuclear weapons program, calling it a "feasible, realistic alternative." He noted that the North is believed to be producing 15 to 20 additional nuclear weapons a year, making a freeze an urgent interim step. "So long as we do not give up on the long-term goal of denuclearization, I believe there are clear benefits to having North Korea stop its nuclear and missile development," Lee said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hardly agrees and has no intention of involving the South in any negotiations related to its nuclear program.
"We will not sit face to face with South Korea, nor do anything together with it," Kim in a speech to the Supreme People’s Assembly on Sunday, the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the following day. He continued to address South Korea as a "colonial state" of the U.S., describing it as a distorted and dependent country that has become Americanized and fundamentally different from the North.
On the other hand, Kim bore "good personal memories" of U.S. President Donald Trump and suggested he could meet him again if Washington dropped what he called the "delusion" of denuclearization.
The reconciliatory tone from Pyongyang arrives as Trump is expected to visit South Korea for an APEC summit, which also brings Chinese President Xi Jinping, raising speculation about North’s Kim joining the high-profile meeting in late October.
Trump likewise shares fond memory with the autocratic leader of North Korea.
In 2018, then-President Moon Jae-in held three summits with Kim – twice at Panmunjom and once in Pyongyang – helping pave the way for Kim's historic meetings with Trump in Singapore and Hanoi. Moon even joined Trump and Kim at Panmunjom in 2019 for an unprecedented three-way handshake. The question now is whether Lee can attempt a similar role, even as Kim pointedly rejects dialogue with Seoul.
Cheong Seong-chang, vice president of the Sejong Institute, said the chance of inter-Korean dialogue is “very slim,” pointing out that Pyongyang now feels less isolated and believes Trump has already recognized it as a nuclear power.
"The North today maintains closer ties with Russia than ever and has restored its relationship with China," he said. "This makes it highly unlikely that the North will accept even a freeze."
Meanwhile, Lee departed for New York on Monday to attend the United Nations General Assembly, his first since taking office. Accompanied by First Lady Kim Hye Kyung, his five-day trip includes meetings with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and U.S. lawmakers. He will deliver a keynote speech on Tuesday, chair a UN Security Council debate the following day, the first for a South Korean president, and wrap up his visit on Thursday with an investment summit before returning home.
reporter
Cheon Soram
cheons@ajupress.com
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