South Korean President Wants Irreversible Peace With North Korea

South Korean President Moon Jae-in plans to use his senior year to achieve “irreversible peace” in the Korean peninsula. He hopes for the support of US President Joe Biden, with whom he will meet next week.

 

Moon said in a speech on Monday that “now is the time to act. I will view the last year of my tenure as the last chance to move from an incomplete peace to an irreversible peace.”

The South Korean president will meet his American counterpart at the White House on May 21. North Korea will then be high on the agenda. Moon becomes the second leader of another country to have personal talks with Biden since taking office, following an April summit with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

“We will also closely coordinate our North Korea policy to restore the inter-Korean dialogue and that between the US and North Korea,” Moon said.

The Biden administration has indicated it may be willing to ease sanctions in exchange for Leader Kim Jong-un’s steps to freeze, restrict and phase out his nuclear arsenal. That could help Kim restore the economy in his country.

North and South Korea never formally made peace after a war in the mid-twentieth century.