President Moon Jae-in on April 21 told The New York Times in an interview that he hopes the U.S. resumes dialogue with North Korea. (Screen capture from Times article)

By Yoon Sojung

President Moon Jae-in on April 21 urged U.S. President Joe Biden to quickly hold talks with North Korea in an interview with The New York Times.

"The most important starting point for both governments is to have the will for dialogue and to sit down face to face at an early date," he said.

"I hope that Biden will go down as a historic president that has achieved substantive and irreversible progress for the complete denuclearization and peace settlement on the Korean Peninsula."

The interview was held on April 16 at Sangchunjae, a Hanok (traditional architecture) building within Cheong Wa Dae, ahead of President Moon's visit to Washington late next month for summit talks with President Biden.

The article's headline was "After Trump 'Failed,' South Korean Leader Hopes Biden Can Salvage Nuclear Deal."

President Moon urged his U.S. counterpart "to kick-start negotiations with the government of Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, after two years in which diplomatic progress stalled, even reversed," calling denuclearization a "'matter of survival' for his country."

On North Korea-U.S. dialogue, President Moon said Washington and Pyeongyang should "move in 'gradual and phased' steps toward denuclearization, exchanging concessions and incentives 'simultaneously' along the way."

The Times quoted President Moon's team as saying "the phased approach is the most realistic, even if it is imperfect," adding, "The key, Mr. Moon said, is for the United States and North Korea to work out a 'mutually trusted road map.'"

Warning that scrapping the 2018 Singapore agreement between then U.S. President Trump and North Korean leader Kim would be a mistake, President Moon said, "I believe that if we build on what President Trump has left, we will see this effort come to fruition under Biden's leadership."

Turning to tension between the U.S. and China, the chief executive said, "If tensions between the United States and China intensify, North Korea can take advantage of it and capitalize on it."

Emphasizing Sino-U.S. cooperation in handling North Korea and other global issues such as climate change, he said, "The deteriorating relations between the superpowers could undermine any negotiations over denuclearization."

Meanwhile, President Moon was to attend from 9 p.m. Korean Standard Time the first session of the Leaders Summit on Climate for two hours.

He will deliver a speech on Korea's bolstered response to climate change to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Twenty-seven heads of state will take part in the virtual summit including President Biden, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

arete@korea.kr