President Moon Jae-in seeks to push for ‘irreversible, permanent peace’ and better dialogue between North Korea and US.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has arrived in Pyongyang for his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, seeking to reboot stalled talks with the US over the North’s denuclearisation.
Moon and his wife, Kim Jung-sook, were greeted by Kim and his wife, Ri Sol-ju at Pyongyang’s airport on Tuesday.
The two leaders are expected to hold meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, and jointly announce the results on the last day if things go smoothly.
Before his departure from Seoul, Moon said he intended to push for “irreversible, permanent peace” and for better dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington.
“This summit would be very meaningful if it yielded a resumption of North Korea-US talks,” he said.
“It’s very important for South and North Korea to meet frequently, and we are turning to a phase where we can meet anytime we want.”
But his chief of staff, Im Jong-seok, tried to lower expectations of major progress on the future of Kim’s nuclear arsenal, saying it was “difficult to have any optimistic outlook”.
Traveling with Moon are business tycoons, including Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong, underscoring Moon’s hopes to expand cross-border business projects.
Currently, all major joint projects between the Koreas are stalled because of US-led sanctions.
