FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Kim Jong-Un Affirms Commitment to Denuclearization of Korean Peninsula
Sept. 6, 2018 (EIRNS)—North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un once again reiterated his commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the North Korea KCNA news agency said today. Kim Jong-un made a statement to this effect at a meeting with a South Korean delegation that visited Pyongyang to organize another Korean summit between him and South Korean President Kim Jae-in.
“Noting that our firm position and his [Kim Jong-un’s] is to completely do away with the threat of an armed conflict and war horrors on the Korean Peninsula and turn it into a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons, free from nuclear threat, he said that North and South must continue efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula,”
KCNA said, according to a report from TASS.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s special envoy Chung Eui-yong, who led the delegation, said on Sept. 6, 2018 that it was also agreed that the third intra-Korean summit will take place in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on Sept. 18-20. Chung also said that the sides had agreed to open an intra-Korean communications office in the city of Kaesong ahead of the summit.
In high-level preparations for the summit next week, Chung explained, the sides will discuss the implementation of the Panmunjom declaration, with practical aspects of establishing lasting peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and its denuclearization. Chung Eui-yong also handed Kim Jong-un a letter from the South Korean President on his trip, TASS reported.
In its coverage, Sputnik reported that South Korean Embassy Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) Director General Kim Jong-kyung said North Korea could enter the European market via Russia.
“North Korea will get an opportunity to enter, for example, to European markets through cooperation with Russia. And that would be very good. But this is a political issue, and I cannot say within what time frame it can be resolved,”
Kim told the annual Eastern Economic Forum-2018 magazine, prepared each year for the EEF conference in Vladivostok by the Roscongress Foundation. The foundation is organizing the exposition for the Sept. 11-13 Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
North Korea is making relevant changes to its policy, as evidenced by the recent meeting between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump. But North Korea still remains under sanctions and in some sort of economic isolation. If joint projects make it possible to supply Russian gas to South Korea through North Korea, this will significantly improve cooperation between the three countries.
