As the Trump-Kim summit approaches, South Korean President Moon Jae-in is the man in the precarious middle
There are media reports that Moon may attend the proposed historic meeting of Trump and Kim in Singapore
In the tug of war between the United States and North Korea over the tentative summit in Singapore, South Korean President Moon Jae-in is the man in the precarious middle, trying to broker a high-stakes meeting between two unconventional leaders.
Moon’s role as a mediator came into sharp focus in the past week, after US President Donald Trump cancelled the summit in a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
As Kim sought to reopen talks, he turned to Moon. In less than 24 hours, Moon’s motorcade snaked through traffic to cross the demilitarised zone for a meeting. Then, on Sunday, US officials crossed the DMZ into North Korea for talks to prepare for the potential June 12 summit, even as its fate remained uncertain.
The fact that talks resumed a day after the surprise inter-Korean meeting was viewed by Moon’s supporters as a sign of his increasingly effective role.
In a briefing on Sunday, Moon said he hopes for an eventual trilateral summit, and on Monday South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that such a meeting might well occur.
“The discussions are just getting started, so we are still waiting to see how they come out, but … [Moon] could join President Trump and Kim in Singapore,” a senior official told Yonhap.
Moon has described the US-North Korea summit as a key first step in achieving his goal of a formal declaration ending the Korean war.