The presidential office is pushing to hold a summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong in July, it said Wednesday.

“Cheong Wa Dae has sent an official to Singapore on a survey mission to prepare for the South Korea-Singapore summit slated to be held in July,” the presidential office said in a released statement.

The statement came after a news media outlet earlier reported that the presidential office had sent an official to Singapore to find a venue to serve as a press center in case Moon gets invited to the country in time for a potential North Korea-US summit there.

The presidential office flatly denied the report, saying the official’s trip to Singapore “has nothing to do with the North Korea-US summit or a South Korea-North Korea-US summit.”

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are working to hold a summit on June 12 in Singapore, with North Korea’s denuclearization to top the agenda.

A ranking Cheong Wa Dae official earlier said Moon may consider joining the US and North Korean leaders in Singapore, depending on the outcome of their bilateral summit. The trip would likely be aimed at declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War with the two leaders.

Declaring an end to the Korean War, which ended in an armistice and left the Koreas technically at war, is thought to be one of the measures to guarantee North Korea’s regime security. It was officially proposed in the third inter-Korean summit at the border village of Panmunjeom on April 27.

(laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)