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By Na Jeong-ju
Politics editor
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Inter-Korean relations saw a drastic turnaround during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics held in February this year. Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have met three times since then, and may meet again in Seoul in the near future. In the mean time, the first summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump took place in Singapore.
North Korea has not made any military provocation during that period. It dismantled some of its missile and nuclear facilities to show its commitment to denuclearization, while Seoul and Washington suspended their joint drills to spur dialogue with Pyongyang.
But the peace is still fragile. Washington and Pyongyang failed to produce any tangible results from their denuclearization talks. The North's sincerity is still being doubted by hardliners in South Korea and the U.S.
However what matters at this point is not whether we can trust North Korea. It took many decades for the U.S. to accept the North as a negotiating partner. A nuclear bargain is not possible without trust in each other, but rather could be the result of long years of mutual trust-building measures.
In this sense, the denuclearization talks could remain stalled as long as Washington sticks to its "denuclearization-first" policy without responding to Pyongyang's demand for sanctions relief. President Trump should make a decision to break the status quo and move the denuclearization process forward.
This follows the agreement Trump reached with Kim in Singapore in June.
A joint statement issued after the summit showed a new direction of U.S.-North Korea relations.
In the statement, North Korea promised to strive for complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The two leaders also agreed to make efforts to create a permanent and stable peace on the peninsula, and build a new relationship between the two countries.
But up until now, it remains only a symbolic agreement, and talks since have made little headway. The peace process could yet unravel, as happened in previous efforts.
In fact, Trump's enthusiasm for the talks is not matched by some officials lower down in his administration, many of whom have watched past initiatives fail and doubt Pyongyang has any intention of giving up its nuclear weapons. They point to North Korea's negotiation prowess ― driving a wedge between Washington and Seoul, and nudging Trump to make concessions before dismantling its nuclear-tipped missiles.
These assessments stem from a lack of trust in North Korea and its young leader.
The first thing North Korea and the U.S. should do now is to meet each other halfway and address each other's reasonable concerns.
What happened over the past year suggests that Kim is serious about reducing inter-Korean tensions and moving closer to peaceful coexistence.
Crucially,?President Moon received enough cooperation from Kim on denuclearization to add some momentum to U.S.-North Korea talks.
Moon secured a pledge from Pyongyang that it would allow foreign observers to watch a missile engine test site at Tongchang-ri be permanently dismantled, and the shuttering of the Yongbyon nuclear complex if the U.S. undertook unspecified reciprocal steps.
Certainly, the U.S. holds the key to moving the peace process forward.
