North Korea signaled that it is willing to discuss “complete denuclearization” without demanding conditions like a withdrawal of American troops from the peninsula, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday, according to a report.
“North Korea is expressing a will for a complete denuclearization,” the South Korean leader said, Reuters reported. “They have not attached any conditions that the US cannot accept, such as the withdrawal of American troops from South Korea.”
“All they are expressing is the end of hostile policies against North Korea, followed by a guarantee of security,” he said.
The US military has more than 23,000 troops stationed in South Korea.
Moon made the remarks as President Trump prepares to meet next month with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong Un.
The president, who has spent the past couple of days with Japanese Prime Minister Shizo Abe at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, said if he feels his meeting with Kim will not be effective, he will call it off.
“If I think that it’s a meeting that’s not going to be fruitful, I won’t go. If the meeting when I’m there is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave,” Trump said Wednesday during a joint press conference with Abe.
Kim’s regime has been unbending about its nuclear weapons programs, saying it needs to defends itself against the United States’ aggression.
Moon said agreements to normalize relations between the Koreas should not be difficult to reach during planned summits between the two countries and when Trump meets with Kim.
South Korea on Wednesday also announced that it was talking with its northern neighbor about entering into a peace agreement instead of an armistice.
The two nations are technically at war because the 1950-1953 conflict ended in a truce.
