Tuesday, September 25, 2018

THREATS FROM NORTH KOREA: President Moon meets Trump



South Korean President Moon Jae-in met with President Donald Trump on Monday, delivering a message from the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un whom he met last week. Moon seems to have successfully revived talks between North Korea and the US, with Trump agree to hold a second summit with Kim.

Presidents Moon and Trump also saw eye-to-eye on their bilateral free trade deal. The two sides inked an amended version of their six-year old FTA, promising efforts to implement the revised trade pact at an early date.

With the signing, Seoul will double the number of American cars that meet US safety rules, not Korean ones, to 5-thousand, while Washington will maintain 25-percent tariffs on imports of South Korean-made light trucks until 2041.

Meanwhile, President Moon sought to rally international support for his efforts to denuclearize North Korea and improve his country's ties with the communist state in a meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The South Korean president asked for the UN chief's continued support.

Gutteres commended President Moon's efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and establish permanent peace, and he said the world body will continue to work closely with South Korea to that end, Cheong Wa Dae said.

The UN chief also said he wanted to "further increase the cooperation between the United Nations and South Korea as South Korea continues to expand its role and contributions in the international community."

After President Trump said a second summit with Kim Jong-un will take place "quite soon", US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took to the podium at a press briefing at the UN General Assembly on Monday to back up the president's comments.

When asked by a CNN reporter whether another meeting with the North Korean leader would be "ludicrous" if the details of the denuclearization process are not in place first, Pompeo said such efforts are not in vain.

He also stressed there's enormous value in the two sides continuing to make progress and holding more conversations.

He added that, by bringing the leaders together, who are capable of making the crunch decisions that will move the denuclearization process forward, they can make progress towards what the UN Security Council has demanded and what Kim Jong-un has promised to do.

Source: Arirang News

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