President Moon Jae-in has stressed that promoting the North's denuclearization is more important than whether its leader Kim Jong-un visits Seoul this year or next year. 

The president made the remark on Monday during a joint press conference with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern shortly after their bilateral summit in Auckland. 

Nevertheless, he said it's still possible that Kim could visit the South Korean capital this year as they agreed. 

Moon added that his role, if Kim visits the South, wouldn't be to get a promise for denuclearization, but to mediate and persuade Kim to make greater progress at the second U.S.-North Korea summit. 

He said that Kim's visit would be the first by a North Korean leader since the division of the Korean Peninsula and would by itself help inter-Korean reconciliation and progress in denuclearization.