Seoul hopes Lee’s first visit to Tokyo will clear up misunderstanding that his government is anti-Japan
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun speaks during a press conference at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap)
The resurrection of long-stalled nuclear talks between the United States and North Korea will hinge on US President Donald Trump’s leadership, with an inevitable tug-of-war over the negotiations’ ultimate goal, Seoul’s top diplomat said Thursday.
“As for the current situation, I can say that we expect President Donald Trump’s leadership to produce some progress,” South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said during his first news briefing with local media at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Seoul.
“We are closely coordinating with the US, consulting on preparations and related matters as to how dialogue between North Korea and the US is currently proceeding,” Cho added, declining to share further details.
Asked whether substantive behind-the-scenes work was underway for dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington or if it was still only at the conceptual stage, Cho explained, “If North Korea engages in dialogue with the US, it will likely demand that Washington recognize and accept its status as a nuclear-weapon state.”
“However, for now, the US maintains that North Korea cannot possess nuclear weapons. Therefore, a push-and-pull between the two sides is inevitable.”
Speaking at the briefing on condition of anonymity, a high-ranking official further explained that Washington and Pyongyang would have to find a middle ground to restart nuclear negotiations.
“How will US-North Korea dialogue proceed? Will we allow it to move toward nuclear arms control talks as North Korea wishes? Just as it would be impossible to conduct negotiations solely on the premise of complete denuclearization, it would also be impossible to recognize North Korea as a nuclear-weapons state and to hold arms control talks on that basis,” the official said.
“Therefore, the two sides will have to find common ground somewhere and begin negotiations from there.”
Nuclear talks have been effectively suspended since the abrupt breakdown of the second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Trump in February 2019 in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Speaking at the briefing, Cho also underscored that President Lee Jae Myung’s decision to make Japan the destination of his first solo overseas trip — ahead of a visit to the US — reflects his administration’s “pragmatic, reality-based” foreign policy.
Lee has notably broken from a longstanding practice; presidents in governments launched after the 1987 constitutional revision have typically chosen the United States for their first solo overseas trip. The sole exception was his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, who met then-US President Joe Biden in Seoul in May 2022, just 11 days after taking office.
“I understand that it is unusual for the president to visit Japan before visiting the US, and for the foreign minister to choose Japan as the first country to visit,” Cho said. “But this was possible because the Lee Jae Myung administration pursues a pragmatic, reality-based approach.”
Lee is slated to visit Tokyo from Aug. 23-24 for his second in-person meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba before traveling to the US for his first summit with Trump on Aug. 25.
Cho himself also visited Tokyo first in late July as his first overseas trip before his talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington.
“It is because we thought it natural to first talk with Japan, whose position is in many ways similar to ours, before visiting the US,” Cho said.
The unnamed official explained that Cho’s first trip to Tokyo was directed by President Lee. Against that backdrop, the president will visit Japan en route to the US.
“Such a sequence of visits is partially considered to address certain misconceptions or stigmas about the Lee Jae Myung administration,” the official said. He added that when the president visits Japan and then the US, “any prejudices about our government held in the US” that the Lee government is anti-Japan will be completely dispelled.
On Japan policy, Cho said Seoul would pursue a “multitrack approach,” dismissing the long-held notion of a two-track approach that separates historical disputes stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from efforts to strengthen economic and security cooperation.
Cho underscored that the two-track approach is too simplistic for Seoul and Tokyo, which face a wide range of intertwined issues — from the shifting global order to shared challenges such as population decline and the extinction of rural communities.
“Putting certain issues on one track and others on another is not that simple. In the end, the tracks intersect and influence each other,” Cho said. “So a multitrack approach might be more appropriate.”
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