Seoul ¨C South ?Korean President Lee Jae Myung asked U.S. President Donald Trump to take the ?lead in seeking ?a peaceful resolution of tensions with North Korea during a brief ?exchange at the Group of Seven summit on Tuesday, Lee¡¯s office said.
The two leaders greeted each other during a G7 leaders¡¯ group photo, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said, ?where Trump asked Lee about the current state of relations with North Korea.
Lee asked Trump to lead ?efforts to resolve the North Korea issue peacefully, as he had done with the war in the Middle East, according to Lee¡¯s office. Trump ?responded that he would work to address ?the North Korea issue, Kang said.
In a joint statement issued on Wednesday following the summit, G7 leaders expressed ¡°deep concern¡± about ?North Korea¡¯s nuclear and ?ballistic missile programs and reaffirmed their commitment to the ¡°complete denuclearization ?of North Korea in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolutions.¡±
The leaders also urged ?North ?Korea to resolve the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang and reiterated the need to jointly address North Korea¡¯s cryptocurrency thefts and cybercrimes.
Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held three meetings during Trump¡¯s first term, including a landmark ?summit in Singapore in 2018, a second summit in Hanoi in 2019 and a meeting later that year at the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas, where Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to step into North Korea.
The diplomacy collapsed after the Hanoi summit failed to produce ?an ?agreement on dismantling North Korea¡¯s nuclear program and easing U.S.-led sanctions.
Trump ?has repeatedly signaled interest in reviving direct diplomacy with Kim. He said in August last year that he looked forward to seeing the North Korean leader ¡°in the appropriate future,¡± and said in October he would ¡°love¡± to meet Kim again.
Trump last week posted a captionless photo of himself with Kim Jong Un on Truth Social, in ?an apparent reminder of their past diplomacy.
South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Monday said he viewed the post as a ¡°good signal¡± that Trump would be willing to focus on a meeting with Kim once the conflict with Iran is resolved, local media reported.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.