Moon calls for all-out efforts to make U.S.-N. Korea summit success

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for the U.S. administration's continued and unfaltering efforts to make the upcoming U.S.-North Korea summit a success Tuesday, saying the summit could well decide the future of the Korean Peninsula, Kazinform has learned from Yonhap.

The call came in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House National Security Advisor John Bolton.

"You two play key roles in U.S. security and foreign relations and the people of South Korea expect a great deal from you two because we are in a very critical period of time to determine the fate and future of South Korea or the Korean Peninsula," Moon told the U.S. officials, according to pool reports.

Moon arrived here Monday for a two-day visit. His meeting with the U.S. officials came shortly before his bilateral summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, who is in turn scheduled to hold a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12.

The rare meeting between the South Korean president and the U.S. officials came after reports that Trump, or his aides, may be having second thoughts about the Kim summit amid suspicions over the North's commitment to denuclearization.

President Moon sought to convince the U.S. officials that the U.S.-North Korea summit may very well lead to the complete denuclearization of the communist North, which he earlier said would be an achievement that no other U.S. president has been able to realize.

"(He) especially urged the U.S. officials to continue preparing for the summit calmly and without any second thoughts, insisting that Chairman Kim Jong-un certainly remains committed to the success of the North Korea-U.S. summit," Moon's chief press secretary, Yoon Young-chan, said of Tuesday's meeting.

Pompeo said his country too placed great importance on the summit with the North Korean leader not only for his country but also South Korea and the rest of the world.

The South Korean president also stressed the need for the U.S. to continue talking to Pyongyang, his office Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release.

"President Moon especially asked them to continue consulting with North Korea for the success of the North Korea-U.S. summit, and highlighted the fact that our government too will do its utmost to help successfully hold the upcoming North Korea-U.S. summit," it said.