Moon Chung-in’s remarks come amid concerns that the US and North Korea have made little progress in the denuclearization process, with the two countries offering a different assessment of Pompeo’s much-anticipated trip to North Korea. 

While the top US diplomat described the meeting as “productive,” North Korea later said that US negotiators’ approach was “utterly regretful” in making “gangster-like” unilateral demand for denuclearization. 

Moon said the difference lies in the detailed timeline over the denuclearization process. While Washington wants to see Pyongyang abandon its nuclear ambitions first, North Korea is calling for “phased, simultaneous actions” to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
“From North Korea’s point of view, it is nothing but a demand for unilateral disarmament and they will never accept it. Washington, however, said they can't talk about establishing a peace regime without North Korea’s specific progress on denuclearization.”

Moon expected that the denuclearization process of North Korea is going to be the toughest procedure yet, as the communist country will undergo thorough declaration and verification of its nuclear arsenal.

While the ideal model of an initial step for denuclearization is removing North Korea’s nuclear weapons out of the country, the process will occur only after Pyongyang made a thorough declaration of its nuclear program and have it fully verified by outside inspectors.

Only then can the Trump administration consider lifting economic sanctions imposed on North Korea, Moon Chung-in predicted. In the meantime, South Korea should have “patience” until the arduous verification process ends, he said.

“The verification process will be very tough… Once we determined the subject of verification, we should check out whether nuclear weapons were fully removed or not… Given the complexity of the process, we should have patience,” said Moon Chung-in.

(jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)