Anchor: Seoul has come up with a compromise in hopes of rekindling long-stalled nuclear talks with Pyongyang, suggesting a three-phase denuclearization road map. On Thursday the South Korean presidential office released a summary of President Lee Jae Myung’s comments on the matter in an interview with the Japanese daily the Yomiuri Shimbun.
Kim Bum-soo reports. 

Report: President Lee Jae Myung is seeking to reopen nuclear talks with Pyongyang, proposing a “nuclear freeze” as a starting point.

Lee told the Japanese daily the Yomiuri Shimbun that his government would like to move in sequence from a freeze on nuclear and missile development to reduction, and eventually to denuclearization.

The plan requires South Korea to recognize the North’s current nuclear and missile capabilities, and to accept a freeze at that level as a gateway to nuclear negotiations.

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol refused to recognize the North’s nuclear arsenal and instead sought a comprehensive denuclearization deal with Pyongyang, offering to provide economic assistance in phases as long as the North kept its side of the bargain.

Seoul is reviving the Moon Jae-in government’s approach, but Pyongyang appears no more willing to engage with Lee than his ousted predecessor. 

In a hawkish statement released the previous day, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister Yo-jong said there were no real differences between previous South Korean governments, left or right, and that Lee is “not the sort of man who will change the course of history.” 

With Pyongyang rejecting Seoul’s calls for dialogue, it remains to be seen what role Washington might play in breaking the current impasse.

Lee holds his first in-person talks with U.S. President Donald Trump next week.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.