ⓒYONHAP News

"We can neither be optimistic nor pessimistic about the dialogues between the South and North Korea and between the North and the U.S... "

President Moon Jae-in says it is too early to be disappointed about the prospect of denuclearizing North Korea.

"There were concerns about North Korean provocation, but President Trump remembered Chairman Kim's birthday and sent birthday congratulations to him. I think it was a great idea, underlining intentions for talks. North Korea received the message and responded immediately, emphasizing friendly relations between the two leaders. North Korea added conditions that its demands must be met for dialogue, but it's clear that the door is still open for talks."

The South Korean president held a question-and-answer session with reporters on Tuesday, addressing a wide range of issues, including stalled nuclear talks with North Korea.

Is South Korea's support for sanctions a blank check for Washington? Is it unconditional?

"North Korea sanctions are not goals in themselves. The goal is to derive North Korea's denuclearization through sanctions. Likewise, if the North takes substantial measures, the U.S. and the international community must take corresponding measures, and that could include weakening sanctions."

But for Moon, the dilemma is how to assure North Korea that it won't end up like Libya's Muammar Gaddafi or Iran's Qassem Soleimani.

How can you now convince Kim Jong-un that he should still give up his nuclear weapons and how can you convince him that any deal he may do with this administration will not be simply overturned by the next administration?

"What I discussed in my New Year’s address is that South Korea should not just rely on North Korea-U.S. talks. As that dialogue is in a stalemate, we should find various realistic methods to improve inter-Korean relations as much as we can."

With Pyongyang sidelining Seoul in the stalled nuclear talks with the U.S. and the U.S. remaining adamant on the sanctions front, Moon didn't have an immediate answer.

He hinted, however, improved cross-border relations could in turn attract international support for sanctions relief to revive inter-Korean projects, urging Washington to discuss creative ideas with Seoul to ride out the stalemate.

In his televised New Year's press conference on Tuesday, President Moon Jae-in said there’s still a long way to go in his controversial drive to reform South Korea's powerful prosecution.

"The prosecutors might think it’s unfair that I keep blaming them. All citizens applaud impartial investigations by the prosecutors. But despite that prosecutors are taking the lead in doing the most for a just Korea, the people are demanding prosecutorial reform because they feel that prosecutors -- in the process of investigations -- have failed to restrain their investigative authority, tried to play public opinion by publishing facts about the accused, and exercised superlegal authority. If the prosecutors humbly recognize this, I think it could be a great help in quickly achieving prosecutorial reform."

South Korean prosecutors have been widely accused of siding with the powerful and using their authority to open politically motivated investigations.

Some observers even accuse them of seeking to block government reform efforts by launching all-out probes into electoral and corruption scandals involving figures close to Moon.

Moon nonetheless expressed his trust in the nation's top investigator, Prosecutor-General Yoon Seok-youl.

Moon denied accusations that his reform efforts are aimed at suppressing the prosecution and getting it to work to the administration's advantage, saying the prosecution is an organization that should be subject to democratic checks and balances.