Anchor: President Moon Jae-in's special adviser for unification, diplomacy and national security gave insight on what’s next to come for South Korea following the historic inter-Korean summit. With a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump slated for the end of May or early June, he said the biggest challenge is how to narrow gaps on the denuclearization sequence.
Our Oh Sooyoung brings us this exclusive KBS World Radio interview with Moon Chung-in.

Report:  

[Sound bite: Presidential Adviser Moon Chung-in (English)]
"(The) next step will be institutionalization. North and South Korean cooperation. For example, if the first summit goes well, then there will be regularized North-South Korean summits, which will be backed up by regularized ministerial talks. 

President Moon Jae-in’s special adviser for unification, diplomacy and national security has laid out a possible roadmap that could follow the historic inter-Korean summit.

In an exclusive interview with KBS World Radio held before the summit Friday, Moon Chung-in suggested that the heavily-fortified demilitarized zone(DMZ) between the two Koreas should be turned into a peace zone.

[Sound bite: Presidential Adviser Moon Chung-in (English)]
"What is important is to have a peace treaty but more important is to have some kind of trust between the North and South. That there would be no war on the Korean Peninsula."
“They can start with how to make the DMZ as a kind of peace zone. They can come up with some kind of measure to stabilize peace and stability in the West Sea. They can take that kind of preliminary measure to confidence building. That will make us feel more peace." 

Ahead of the proposed summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, slated for late-May or early June, the special adviser said President Moon will work as a bridge between Pyongyang and Washington.

[Sound bite: Presidential Adviser Moon Chung-in (English)] 
"President (Moon) has been in very close coordination with the United States and President Moon will be conveying what President Trump has in mind to Chairman Kim Jong-un and also President Moon will listen carefully to Chairman Kim Jong-un and relay back to President Trump. In that way, President Moon will play the role of a kind of mediator, messenger and facilitator between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un. In that way, he will make a contribution to making the DPRK-U.S. summit talks successful. 

The presidential adviser believes Pyongyang will enter negotiation talks, sharing Seoul and Washington’s aim of complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement or CVID, but the devil is in the details. 

[Sound bite: Presidential Adviser Moon Chung-in (English)] 
"The biggest challenge is how to implement denuclearization. I personally believe there is a common understanding on what is meant by denuclearization. And it should be the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of nuclear weapons, but the issue at stake is how to make a sequencing of the denuclearization. Therefore, the most important thing is what would be the duration of denuclearization. How fast it can be. Second critical issue is what kind of reward or incentive the U.S. come up with, in return for North Korea’s denuclearization effort. Those two issues need to be really fine-tuned or the Trump-Kim Jong-un summit will encounter great problems." 

Still, the advisor said he believed there is more chance for success than failure, noting that the North, in the past, had been passive about efforts for denuclearization, but this time around, the regime has made it “very clear,” it is willing to talk.
Oh Sooyoung, KBS World Radio News.