SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in and the North’s leader Kim Jong Un opened a new round of talks at a summit in Pyongyang on Wednesday with the North Korean nuclear arsenal high on the agenda, but Seoul warned they may not reach an agreement. Moon is on a three-day trip to the North Korean capital for his third summit with Kim this year, hoping to reboot stalled denuclearisation talks between his hosts and the United States. After the high symbolism of the two Korean leaders’ first meeting in April in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula, and Kim’s historic summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore in June, pressure is mounting for more substantive progress. In Singapore, Kim declared his backing for the denuclearisation of the peninsula, but no details were agreed and Washington and Pyongyang have since sparred over what that means and how it will be achieved. Wednesday’s talks took place at the Paekhwawon official guesthouse on the outskirts of Pyongyang.

Source: Manila Times September 19, 2018 02:03 UTC