SOUTH Korean president Moon Jae-in has said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un committed in the rivals’ surprise meeting to sitting down with President Donald Trump and to a “complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”.
The Korean leaders’ second summit in a month saw bear hugs and broad smiles, but their quickly arranged meeting appears to highlight a sense of urgency on both sides of the world’s most heavily armed border.
Trump said negotiations over a potential June 12 summit with Kim that he had earlier cancelled are “going along very well”. Trump added they are still considering Singapore as the venue for their talks. He said there is a “lot of good will” and denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula would be “a great thing”.
The Koreas’ talks, which Moon said Kim requested, capped a whirlwind 24 hours of diplomatic back-and-forth. It allowed Moon to push for a US-North Korean summit that he sees as the best way to ease animosity that had some fearing a war last year.
Kim may see the sit-down with Trump as necessary to easing pressure from crushing sanctions and to winning security assurances in a region surrounded by enemies.
Moon said Kim “again made clear his commitment to a complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” and told the South Korean leader that he is willing to cooperate to end confrontation.
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