Kim Donghyung
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The leaders of hostile North Korea have exchanged letters expressing hope for improved bilateral ties, which have plummeted over the past three years as nuclear talks froze and North Korea accelerated weapons development.
North Korean state media said leader Kim Jong-un received a personal letter from outgoing South Korean President Moon Jae-in on April 20 and replied to his own letter the next day thanking Moon for his peace during his tenure. effort. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said their exchange of letters showed their “deep trust”.
North Korea announced the letters were aimed at splitting public opinion in South Korea and preventing the new government in Seoul from taking a tough stance on Pyongyang after its inauguration in May, experts said.
Moon Jae-in told Kim Jong-un that he would continue to work for North Korea’s reunification even after he leaves office in May, based on their joint peace declaration issued after their 2018 summit, KCNA said.
KCNA said that Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in shared the belief that “if (the North and South) make unremitting efforts with hope, the DPRK-ROK relations will be improved and developed in accordance with the (South Korean) country’s expectations and expectations.”
Moon’s office confirmed the exchange of letters shortly after the KCNA report, but it took hours to release a version of its account, suggesting North Korea had not coordinated with Seoul before announcing the exchange of letters.
The KCNA report was not published on North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun and read by domestic audiences, suggesting the information was aimed at the south.
In a letter to Kim Jong-un, Moon acknowledged the setback in inter-Korean relations, but insisted that their peace vows during the 2018 summit and accompanying military agreement aimed at resolving conflicts in the border area remain future cooperation, according to Seoul. Foundation.
Moon Jae-in also expressed his desire to resume nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang and hoped that Kim Jong-un would seek cooperation with the next government in Seoul, led by conservative President-elect Yoon Se-yeol, said Park Kyung-mi, a spokesman for Moon.
Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea, said that while it was polite to write a letter to the North Korean leader when South Korea left office, North Korea has made public personal exchanges aimed at sowing division in South Korea ahead of a change of government.
“It is questionable whether it would be appropriate for President Moon Jae-in to send a letter to Chairman Kim to express his warm greetings, given the signs that North Korea is preparing for its seventh nuclear test,” Cheong said.
Yoon, who took office on May 10, harshly described Moon’s foreign policy as “submissive” to North Korea and said he would not “negotiate for the sake of negotiation”. He vowed to bolster the defenses of South Korea’s alliance with the United States, which he said would include strengthening pre-emptive strike capabilities and anti-missile systems to deter North Korean attacks.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have risen since North Korea conducted a series of weapons tests in March, including the first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile since March 2017, reviving a policy of nuclear brinkmanship aimed at forcing the United States to accept its status as a nuclear power and lift harsh sanctions.
South Korea’s military also found signs that North Korea is rebuilding a tunnel at a nuclear test site that was partially dismantled weeks before Kim Jong-un’s first meeting with then-President Donald Trump in June 2018, a possible sign that the country is moving Prepare to resume nuclear explosion testing.
Moon Jae-in, who staked his single presidency on inter-Korean reconciliation, met with Kim three times in 2018 and lobbied hard to help him meet Trump. But diplomacy never recovered from the failure of a second Kim-Trump meeting in Vietnam in 2019, when Americans rejected North Korea’s demands to lift major sanctions in exchange for dismantling the aging nuclear facility, the equivalent of Partial surrender of its nuclear facilities. nuclear capability.
Kim Jong-un has since vowed to strengthen his nuclear deterrent to counter U.S. “bandit-style” pressure and to speed up weapons development amid limited resources and pandemic-related difficulties.
North Korea has also cut off all cooperation with the Moon Jae-in administration, while expressing anger at the continuation of U.S.-South Korea military exercises, which have been scaled back in recent years to promote diplomacy with North Korea, and Seoul’s inability to win Washington on its behalf. concession.
Analysts said North Korea could escalate its weapons demonstrations in the coming weeks and months to force a response from a Biden administration, which has been focused on Russia’s war on Ukraine and competition with China.
