Many had hoped that the American secretary of state’s planned visit to North Korea would help the South’s leader, Moon Jae-in, to advance his inter-Korean agenda.
SEOUL, South Korea — The past few days have been a roller-coaster ride for President Moon Jae-in of South Korea.
On Thursday, the United States secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, announced that he would travel to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, this coming week, raising hopes that the trip would make progress in talks over denuclearizing the North and provide the rationale for Mr. Moon to advance inter-Korean relations.
Those hopes were quickly dashed barely a day later, however, when President Trump abruptly canceled Mr. Pompeo’s trip.
To many South Koreans, Washington’s zigzag was another sign of poor coordination in its North Korea policy, and it left Mr. Moon with a difficult choice.
If Mr. Moon ignores Mr. Trump’s unhappiness with North Korea and pushes ahead with his plan to open South Korea’s first liaison office in the North as early as this coming week, as well as meeting its leader, Kim Jong-un, in Pyongyang next month, he could run the risk of creating a rift with Washington, the South’s most important ally.
Any major cooperative deal with Mr. Kim would also prompt a backlash from Mr. Moon’s conservative enemies at home, who are always eager to portray him as a dangerous progressive.
But postponing the inter-Korean projects, such as his plan to reconnect the two Koreas’ railways, would also be a huge setback for Mr. Moon, who has vowed to take a “driver’s seat” in efforts to defuse the crisis over the North’s nuclear weapons development and build peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Mr. Trump could have pulled the plug on Mr. Pompeo’s trip in an attempt to gain quick leverage over North Korea, and the American president may revive it soon — just as he once canceled and then reinstated his summit meeting with Mr. Kim in June, said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, the South Korean capital.
But if that turns out not to be the case, Mr. Moon could find himself in an awkward position when he sits down with Mr. Kim next month.
“He can try to persuade Kim Jong-un to become more cooperative with denuclearization, telling him that inter-Korean relations cannot advance without it, or he can decide to press ahead with inter-Korean projects without progress in denuclearization,” said Shin Beom-chul, a North Korea specialist at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. “If he chooses the latter, it will bode ill for South Korean-United States relations.”
Mr. Moon’s foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha, talked with Mr. Pompeo on the phone on Saturday, expressing regrets over the cancellation of Mr. Pompeo’s trip. But the allies agreed to maintain “momentum for dialogue” with North Korea, Ms.
