South Korean president calls for new Trump-Kim meeting

South Korean President Moon Jae-in called Wednesday for US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to meet soon, saying a prolonged impasse could weaken their willingness to pursue dialogue on the Korean peninsula.

During a visit to Oslo, Moon said it was “desirable that Chairman Kim and President Trump meet in the near future”.

“If the period of no dialogue is prolonged, then the passion for dialogue could subside,” he said, on the one-year anniversary of the pair’s historic meeting in Singapore.

A second summit in Hanoi in February was broadly viewed as a failure.

“Because the second US-North Korean summit in Hanoi did not yield a concrete agreement and then we have not been able to see any momentum for a third US-North Korea summit… we could say that on the surface we have reached some kind of an impasse,” Moon said.

However, “even though we are not engaged in official dialogue, we have been exchanging personal letters and in those personal letters we have been expressing mutual trust as well as unwavering commitment for further dialogue,” he said.

On Tuesday, Trump said he had received a “beautiful letter” from Kim Jong Un.

Moon said he would like to meet with the North Korean leader before Trump’s visit to South Korea scheduled for the end of June.

“However the exact timing for a meeting is up to Chairman Kim,” Moon said.