Lee proposes Trump meet North Korean leader during APEC summit
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and US President Donald Trump on Monday agreed on the need to revive dialogue with North Korea as a path to stabilizing the Korean Peninsula.
Their accord during the first summit has raised expectations that the forthcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea could provide momentum for resurrecting long-stalled talks between Pyongyang and Washington.
Lee admitted that his role alone is not sufficient to restore inter-Korean ties and revive nuclear diplomacy, calling for Trump’s support. Trump expressed his intention to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this year.
Lee publicly proposed, “If you, Mr. President, become the peacemaker, then I will assist you as the pacemaker” — a sharp departure from the approach of the previous liberal Moon Jae-in administration, which sought to spearhead nuclear diplomacy.
During a closed-door meeting, Lee urged Trump to attend the APEC summit, which is set to take place in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said Monday following the meeting.
Lee also proposed pursuing a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on the occasion of the summit, eliciting a positive response from Trump, who lauded Lee’s suggestion, Kang explained.
Lee’s National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac further elucidated Monday that President Lee made such a proposal to Trump in light of the need to halt North Korea’s continued advancement of nuclear and missile capabilities.
“The president seemed to hold the view that such a situation is undesirable, that it must somehow be stopped, and furthermore, that it must be reversed. He also mentioned this point today (during the luncheon with Trump),” Wi told reporters during a press briefing. “There was, on the whole, a shared understanding (between the two leaders).”
However, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Tuesday played down the potential of facilitating a meeting between Trump and Kim on the margins of the APEC summit.
Chung said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s “actual attendance at the APEC summit is unrealistic.”
“Since President Trump will be visiting South Korea and is unlikely to return next year, we should make use of this occasion,” Chung said when asked about the potential for a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit.
“For such a meeting to take place, some common ground needs to be found. Right now, there isn’t any,” Chung added.
However, Chung underscored that the Lee–Trump summit demonstrated a “shared perception and methodology between the two leaders on the Korean Peninsula peace strategy, which is resolution through dialogue,” raising expectations for an expeditious resumption of US–North Korea summitry.
“Since (Trump) said he will meet (Kim) within this year, the right conditions will have to be created,” Chung said.
In mid-August, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun also explained that North Korea “will likely demand that Washington recognize and accept its status as a nuclear-weapon state if North Korea engages in dialogue with the US.”
Cho further pointed out that “a push-and-pull between the two sides is inevitable,” given that the US maintains that North Korea cannot possess nuclear weapons.
Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Party Central Committee, said in a July 29 press statement that negotiations aimed at achieving denuclearization between Pyongyang and Washington cannot be realized.
Kim stressed that the two sides cannot return to the pattern of nuclear talks held from 2018 to 2019.
“If the US cannot accept the changed reality and clings only to its failed past, a meeting between the DPRK and the US will remain nothing more than the US’ ‘hope,’” Kim said, referring to North Korea by the acronym of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
