Despite U.S. Opposition:

South Korea Says Ready for ‘Concession’ to North

Date: 19 February 2019 - 21:50

News ID: ۶۳۳۲۷

SEOUL (Dispatches) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in told U.S. President Donald Trump in a call on Tuesday that his country is willing to open economic engagement with North Korea as a "concession” if it will hasten Pyongyang’s denuclearization, Moon’s office said.
Trump is scheduled to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam next week for a second summit aimed at enticing Kim to follow through on his pledge to abandon nuclear weapons.
Since Trump and Kim first met in June last year, there has been little progress in talks between the two countries, while Moon and Kim have forged ahead with multiple summits of their own, as well as promises of inter-Korean cooperation on everything from reducing border tensions to launching a joint bid for the 2032 Olympics.
But plans for economic projects, such as linking railways, reopening a joint industrial center, and allowing South Korean tourists to visit the North, have been on hold while the United States opposed loosening sanctions until more progress is made on denuclearization.
Moon asked Trump to make use of South Korea’s role as a "concession” to expedite North Korea’s denuclearization, saying he was ready to undertake anything from reconnecting rail and road links between the two Koreas to other inter-Korean economic cooperation, according to a statement from Moon’s spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.
Since the last summit in Singapore, the North has suspended missile and nuclear testing, demolished at least one nuclear test site, and agreed to allow international inspectors into a missile engine test facility and another nuclear testing site.
North Korean authorities, however, have complained about continued U.S. and UN sanctions, calling them a "source of mistrust”.
In the wake of the first summit between Trump and Kim, which was held in June, they agreed to work toward denuclearization, but that agreement, made in a written document, was broadly worded.
Subsequent diplomacy between the two sides has also made little progress in recent months, mainly because the U.S. refuses to lift harsh sanctions on the North.
Earlier this month, a confidential report to the UN Security Council said North Korea was working to ensure that its nuclear and missile capabilities would not be destroyed by any military strikes.
The report said UN sanctions monitors had "found evidence of a consistent trend on the part of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) to disperse its assembly, storage and testing locations.”