FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
New Korea Diplomatic Motion; China’s CGTN Interviews EIR on Korea Developments
April 30, 2018 (EIRNS)—South Korean officials were reported by China Global Television Network (CGTN), today, to have given more details of the summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and on more diplomatic actions in preparation for a summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump. The officials said that Kim had offered U.S.-South Korean inspection of North Korea’s nuclear test site, which it will shut down; and that North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons program if the United States will sign a treaty and commit not to attack it.
Kim also reportedly wanted to normalize relations with Japan and meet with its Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Moon was said to have called Abe on the morning of April 29 to mediate this, after Trump and Abe had spoken by phone.
And symbolically, the D.P.R.K. will advance its clocks half an hour to conform to the R.O.K. time zone.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Pyongyang May 2-3, and President Moon will visit Washington again after his May 9 trilateral meeting with Abe and China’s Premier Li Keqiang in Japan.
President Trump tweeted April 29, “Things are going very well, time and location of meeting with North Korea is being set.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave an essentially optimistic view of the prospect of this surprising Trump-Kim summit, when Pompeo appeared on ABC News “This Week” April 29.
EIR Washington Bureau chief Bill Jones was interviewed live by CGTN’s “Global Watch” on Korean Peninsula developments. Jones said the two Koreas are “now in sync” on more than one issue and that the Pyongyang’s time zone change was symbolic of that shift. Regarding the prospective Trump meeting with Kim Jong-un and whether the two could establish a friendly relationship, Jones replied that they already have something of a friendly relationship, referring to the positive statements that President Trump had made in Michigan, and the upbeat assessment of Secretary Pompeo after his Pyongyang meeting with Kim.
Jones told the Chinese TV network: “President Trump realizes if he succeeds in ending the Korean War, this will be a high point for his Presidency.” Jones said he felt that if Kim Jong-un is prepared for a verifiable denuclearization, there should be no obstacle to signing a peace treaty or to an American pledge not to attack the D.P.R.K., which Kim has been asking for. On the D.P.R.K., Jones also said that all the parties are working in the same direction—the United States, North Korea, also China, South Korea, and Russia—and this has created a powerful dynamic for success.
