Under the right conditions, South Korean President Moon Jae-in could someday soon make a historic trek to Pyongyang for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in could someday soon make a historic trek to Pyongyang for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a meeting made possible by recent diplomacy at the Winter Olympics.
But that would only happen after the parties first “set the conditions,” the South Korean government reiterated Monday. The phrase indicates a desire for the North to accept some discussion of its nuclear program, and perhaps schedule talks with Seoul’s key ally, the United States.
The conditions for Moon aren’t quite set, either.
The president remains relatively popular, with a roughly 60% approval rating, after winning election in May with just a plurality of the vote — in a campaign defined in part by his openness to engage in dialogue with the North. Yet many South Koreans — not to mention regional security partners in Washington and Tokyo — question whether pursuing such a bold diplomatic move with the North right now is wise.
“It’s a democracy, and you have to lay the groundwork,” said Robert Kelly, a political science professor at Pusan National University who blogs about security issues. “He’s got to sell it to skeptical constituencies.”
That process began after the summit offer Saturday by a high-level delegation visiting the South for the Games and continued Monday as the agency charged with inter-Korean relations, the Ministry of Unification, released a memo outlining the government’s position.
The document, which also acknowledges that the president’s full-throated embrace of Olympics diplomacy was met with concern by many South Koreans, suggests a delicate path forward to any top-level dialogue.
In outlining its position, the Moon government noted, for example, that for years no progress has been made in curbing the North’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, despite sanctions by the international community.
But it stressed a desire to pursue diplomatic progress while also remembering the concerns held by its regional security partners, including Japan and the United States.
Any meeting between Moon and Kim, who recently boasted that his nuclear-armed nation can now strike the United States, would be the first of its kind in more than a decade.
The offer came from a delegation that included Kim Yong Nam, the North’s ceremonial head of state, and Kim Yo Jong, a party official who is Kim Jong Un’s sister.
The document said progress in the meantime could still be made on issues in which Washington and Tokyo aren’t direct players, such as humanitarian aid or reunions for families separated by the Korean War.
