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| President Moon Jae-in, left, shakes hands with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats upon the U.S. intelligence chief's visit to Cheong Wa Dae, Wednesday. Yonhap |
By Kim Yoo-chul
President Moon Jae-in met U.S. spy chief Dan Coats at Cheong Wa Dae, Wednesday, to discuss pending issues, according to presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.
Without disclosing details, the spokesman said Moon and Coats shared views on "a wide range of issues in a candid manner."
Ahead of his visit to Cheong Wa Dae, Coats and South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) chief Suh Hoon discussed ways to break the continued impasse in nuclear talks after last month's failed Hanoi summit, two sources with direct knowledge of the talks said.
"Coats and NIS Chief Suh discussed coordinated efforts to advance North Korean denuclearization. They also shared a definition of verified denuclearization and what that means for North Korea," one source said, asking not to be named.
Coats arrived Tuesday evening at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul. His visit to Seoul was not made public.
Another source said the Moon-Coats meeting also covered ways on how to share classified information relating to North Korea, to respond should North Korea decide to conduct any type of missile tests, because North Korea is said to be building long-range missiles.
The source said Coats also demonstrated some concerns among U.S. politicians over Seoul's push to ease sanctions on North Korea.
In a recent appearance before Congress, Coats said North Korea is "unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons." While he told U.S lawmakers North Korean leader Kim Jong-un continues to demonstrate openness to denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, U.S. intelligence agencies are still assessing North Korea will "seek to retain its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capabilities as rulers in the North view nuclear weapons as critical to regime survival."
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said early Tuesday (KST) that the United States will "re-engage" with North Korea over issues of mutual concern, but hinted at maintaining the current hardline stance on the negotiating table ― no sanctions easing without full and verified denuclearization.
North Korea said it was considering dropping out of the nuclear talks. In order to prevent further backtracking, President Moon Jae-in said he will play his role as "facilitator" in advancing the talks between Washington and Pyongyang and asked the United States to grant approval for an early resumption of two frozen inter-Korean economic projects as a type of concession.
After the failure of the Hanoi summit, U.S.-North Korea engagement has appeared to be in limbo. Given the lack of a meaningful progress, Moon's role as facilitator is questioned as more U.S. politicians are calling for the Trump administration to correct the "status quo" and to maintain the administration's "maximum pressure and engagement" doctrine.
The U.S. Department of State said Washington's special envoy for the North Korean nuclear issue Stephen Biegun will meet his British, French, and German counterparts until next week to discuss coordinated efforts to advance talks aimed at scrapping North Korea's nuclear program.
