Moon Chung-in “cautiously optimistic” on the prospects of US-North Korea dialogue

Posted on : 2018-03-01 17:36 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
The special presidential advisor says it is highly unlikely that US-South Korea joint military training will be further delayed
Moon Chung-in
Moon Chung-in

Moon Chung-in, special presidential advisor for unification, foreign affairs, and national security, said on Feb. 27 that he “personally hope[s]” that talks between North Korea and the US “resume before [joint] military exercises do.”

In his remarks, Moon referenced media reports that joint South Korea-US military exercises postponed due to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics would resume during the first week of April. Moon’s comments came while the special advisor was attending a seminar on North Korea issues organized in Washington, D.C. by the National Committee on North Korea (NCNK).

Conceding that the joint exercises are “highly unlikely to be [further] delayed or canceled,” Moon predicted that there “could be some sort of compromise reached if dialogue takes place between the US and North Korea before the South Korea-US joint military exercises.”

“As recently as December of last year, the US Pacific Command wanted to go ahead with the joint exercises as scheduled, but they were ultimately postponed after consultation between South Korea and the US,” he noted.

“With a month still remaining [before the exercises], I think the situation could change,” he added.

On the possibility of future dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington, Moon said he was “cautiously optimistic that North Korea and the US will finally have dialogue in the near future.”

During a talk earlier that day at the Peace Sympathy Forum organized by the National Unification Advisory Council’s Washington chapter, Moon delivered his assessment of President Moon Jae-in’s efforts at mediating dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington.

“I’m sure he feels like he is skating on thin ice right now. He’s approaching everything with the utmost caution,” the special advisor said of President Moon.

Moon Chung-in also said President Moon “has to create a multilateral discussion framework to prevent US military action [against North Korea],” adding that “the best way [to prevent military action] is through diplomatic relations between North Korea and the US.”

“For that to happen, North Korea needs to adopt a posture of willingness to immediately and verifiably abandon its current nuclear facilities and materials, if not its nuclear weapons themselves,” he continued.

Moon also noted that North Korea views the US’s “maximum pressure” strategy as “hostile behavior that seeks to overturn the regime and bring about its collapse rather than a tool for getting it abandon its nuclear weapons.”

“In that sense, the US needs to establish clear priorities for addressing North Korea issues,” he added.

“[The US] needs to focus everything on the nuclear issue, while making matters like democracy and humans right secondary,” he suggested.

By Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

Related stories