SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Leaders of rival Koreas have exchanged letters expressing hope for improving bilateral relations, which have plummeted over the past three years amid a freeze on nuclear talks and the accelerating development of North Korean weapons.
North Korean state media reported that leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday received a personal letter from outgoing South Korean President Moon Jae-in and responded on Thursday with his own letter praising Moon’s peace efforts during his term. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said on Friday that the exchange of letters showed their “deep trust”.
Experts say the announcement of the North Korean letters, which came as Kim is likely preparing for a nuclear test and other major provocations, is aimed at dividing public opinion in South Korea and discouraging Seoul’s new government from taking a hard line on Pyongyang. after taking office in May. .
KCNA said Moon told Kim that he would continue to campaign for Korean reunification even after leaving office next month, building on his joint peace declarations issued after their 2018 summits.
“Kim and Moon shared the view that” inter-Korean relations will improve and develop according to the wishes and expectations of the (Korean) nation if (the North and the South) make a tireless effort with hope, “KCNA said.
Moon’s office confirmed the exchange shortly after the KCNA report, but spent hours before releasing its version of what was said, showing that the North did not agree with Seoul before announcing the exchange. The KCNA report was not published in the official northern newspaper Rodong Sinmun, read by the local public, indicating that the message was aimed at the South.
According to Seoul, Moon in his letter to Kim acknowledged the failures in inter-Korean relations, but insisted that their ambitious oaths of peace during their summits in 2018 and the accompanying military agreement aimed at calming clashes in the border area, remain relevant as a basis for future cooperation.
Moon also expressed hope for the resumption of nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang and for Kim to continue co-operation with Seoul’s next government, led by conservative newly elected President Yun Suk Yol, Moon’s spokesman Moon Pak Kyung-mi said.
While sending a letter to the North leader is a courtesy, as the South is leaving office, said analyst Cheong Seong-Chang of the Sejong Private Institute in the South, the North has published a personal exchange to create division in South Korea before a change of government.
“Given the indications that North Korea is preparing for its seventh nuclear test, it is doubtful whether it is appropriate for President Moon to send a letter to President Kim to express his warm congratulations,” Cheong said.
Yun, who takes office on May 10, sharply described Moon’s foreign policy as “subordinate” to North Korea and said he would not “negotiate for the sake of negotiations.” He vowed to boost South Korea’s defense in connection with its alliance with the United States, which he said would include improving missile defense capabilities and anti-missile systems to deter North Korean attacks.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen after a series of North Korean weapons tests this year, including the first intercontinental ballistic missile flight of 2017 in March, reviving the nuclear margin to force the United States to accept it as a nuclear power and lifting crippling sanctions.
The South Korean military has also found signs that North Korea is rebuilding tunnels at a nuclear test site that it partially dismantled weeks before Kim’s first meeting with then-President Donald Trump in June 2018, a possible indication that the country is preparing to resume nuclear explosion tests.
Betting on his only presidential term for rapprochement between Korea, Moon met with Kim three times in 2018 and lobbied hard to help organize Kim’s meetings with Trump. But diplomacy has never recovered from the collapse of the second Kim-Trump meeting in 2019 in Vietnam, where the Americans rejected North Korea’s demands for easing heavy sanctions in exchange for dismantling an obsolete nuclear facility that would be a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.
Since then, Kim has vowed to step up her nuclear deterrence to counter US “gangster” pressure and speed up weapons development, despite limited resources and pandemic difficulties.
North Korea has also suspended all cooperation with the Moon government, expressing anger at the resumption of military exercises between the United States and South Korea, which have been cut in recent years to promote diplomacy with the North, and Seoul’s inability to squeeze concessions from Washington. name.
Analysts say North Korea is likely to escalate its arms demonstrations in the coming weeks or months to force a reaction from the Biden administration, which is focused on Russia’s war against Ukraine and rivalry with China.
Biden’s special envoy to North Korea, Sung Kim, traveled to Seoul this week for meetings with senior South Korean officials and said he agreed on the need for a strong response to counter North Korea’s “destabilizing behavior.”
After maintaining a conciliatory tone for years, the Moon government has strongly opposed North Korea’s arms tests this year, criticizing the Kim government for ending its self-imposed suspension of long-range missile tests and urging it to return to diplomacy.
Seoul also accused North Korea of destroying South Korean-owned facilities in the northern Diamond Mountain resort, where they toured together until 2008. In 2019, Kim called South Korean facilities there “seized” and ordered them destroyed, although work was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
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