SEOUL (BLOOMBERG) - South Korea’s outgoing President Moon Jae-in has asked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to stay committed to inter-Korean cooperation, saying restarting dialogue was now up to the incoming government of Yoon Suk-yeol, Moon’s spokeswoman said on Friday (April 22).
Moon sent a letter to Kim, his last as president to the North Korean leader, in which he said the “era of confrontation” should be overcome with dialogue, and expressed hope for a swift restart of denuclearisation talks between Pyongyang and Washington, spokeswoman Park Kyung-mee told a briefing.
On his part, Kim thanked Moon for his efforts at rapprochement, just days before Yoon takes power in Seoul and vows to pursue a tough line with Pyongyang.
After receiving a letter from the South Korean president on Wednesday, Kim responded with a letter that expressed appreciation for “the pains and effort taken by Moon Jae-in for the great cause of the nation until the last days of his term of office”, North Korea’s official media reported. South Korea is expected to brief on the letters later on Friday.
“The exchange of the personal letters between the top leaders of the north and the south is an expression of their deep trust,” the state’s Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday, adding Moon expressed his desires to Kim to work on improving inter-Korean ties even after his retirement.
The letters mark a closing chapter in a turbulent relation between Moon and Kim, who held three summits in 2018 that produced an agreement to reduce military tensions on the border and paved the way for historic talks between Kim and then-US president Donald Trump.
After the discussions with Trump faltered, North Korea branded Moon a meddlesome mediator, ignored his calls for talks and blew up a US$15 million (S$20 million) liaison office north of the border that was one of the South Korean leader’s biggest achievements.
President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who takes office on May 10, has said he may scrap the military deal reached by Moon and Kim. He also said during his campaign that he would be ready to launch a pre-emptive strike on the neighbour to the north to stop an impending attack. Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader, issued a stinging rebuke of the policy.
Ties between the two Koreas have typically cooled when a conservative leads South Korea and North Korea has already ratcheted up tensions before Yoon takes over.
Over the past several months, it has rolled out a new array of weapons designed to strike South Korea, and in March, it launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile since 2017.
