Moon may join US-North Korea summit in Singapore, says official

[能田]

                                           (World Today Monday 28 May 2018)

Moon may join US-N Korea summit in Singapore, says official

A man walking past a TV broadcasting a news report on a cancelled summit

between the US and North Korea, in Seoul, South Korea, on May 25. REUTERS

Updated 28 May, 2018

SEOUL - South Korean president Moon Jae-in may be joining the United States-North Korea summit in Singapore next month, pending ongoing discussions between Washington and Pyongyang.

Yonhap News Agency reported a government official as saying on Monday (May 28) that a three-way summit was proposed by the leaders of the two Koreas when they met last month.

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"The discussions are just getting started, so we are still waiting to see how they come out, but depending on their outcome, the president could join President (Donald) Trump and Chairman Kim (Jong-un) in Singapore," Yonhap quoted the annonymous official as saying.

The report came after Mr Trump said on Sunday that a US team had arrived in North Korea to prepare for the summit, which the mercurial leader pulled out of last week before reconsidering.

The US State Department said US and North Korean officials had met at Panmunjom, a village in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that runs along the heavily armed border between North and South Korea.

"Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself," Mr Trump wrote on Twitter, in Washington's first confirmation that US officials had entered North Korea for the talks.

"I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day. Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen!" Mr Trump added.

In addition to those talks, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said a "pre-advance team" left for Singapore - where the summit has been expected to take place on June 12 - on Sunday morning to work on logistics.

It is no secret that Mr Moon was open to the possibility of a three-way summit between Washington, Pyongyang and Seoul.

Mr Moon first mooted such a meeting when he and Mr Kim met for the first time at Panmunjom on April 27.

He again voiced his hopes for a trilateral summit on Sunday, following his surprise meeting the day before with Mr Kim.

"Should the North Korea-US summit succeed, I would like to see efforts to formally end the (Korean) war through a three-way summit of the South, the North and the US," Yonhap quoted him as saying.

The weekend talks were the latest twist in a week of diplomatic ups and downs over the prospects for an unprecedented US-North Korea summit, and the strongest sign yet that the two Koreas' leaders are trying to keep the meeting on track.

Mr Moon said on Monday that there could be more impromptu talks with North Korea including summits between pre-arranged dialogue.

"What's more important than anything from the latest inter-Korean summit was that the leaders easily got in contact, easily made an appointment and easily met to discuss urgent matters, without complicated procedures and formalities, just like a casual meeting," he told a meeting with senior secretaries.

"If we could hold working-level, back-to-back talks on both sides of Panmunjom if urgently necessary in addition to formal summits, it would expedite faster advancement of inter-Korean relations." AGENCIES