North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a rare year-end letter to South Korean President Moon Jae-in saying he is willing to meet again next year to discuss denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula.
The letter is a positive sign for Seoul and the U.S., which have seen both progress and setbacks when dealing with the rogue regime.
Moon met with Kim three times this year and said welcomed the idea of more talks. “If we meet together with sincerity, there is nothing we cannot achieve,” Moon said, according to CNN. “It took a long time to get here and much has changed in one year.”
Moon shared photos of the letter on Sunday, saying he was “very glad” to see Kim’s renewed commitment to denuclearization to the Korean Peninsula.
새해를 앞두고 김정은 위원장이 편지를 보내왔습니다.
새해에도 자주 만나 평화 번영을 위한 실천적 문제와 비핵화문제를 함께 풀어나가고자 한다는 김 위원장의 뜻이 매우 반갑습니다. https://t.co/SaQOCdbCMc pic.twitter.com/w07j7ibC7D
— 문재인 (@moonriver365) December 30, 2018
Kim “reaffirmed his commitment to aggressively carrying out deals reached with leaders of South Korea and the United States, Moon said, according to the Yonhap News Agency.
Kim not only met with Moon last year, but also held an unprecedented summit with President Trump in Singapore where the pair signed agreement committing to work toward “a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.”
In the intervening months since the June Trump-Kim summit, there have been setbacks, including canceled meetings, Pyongyang telling Washington to back off criticisms of human rights abuses in North Korea, and North Korea venting frustration with sanctions. Earlier this month, North Korea indicated it was willing to halt any progress towards denuclearization unless the U.S. removed both its forces and its “nuclear threat” from the Korean Peninsula.
Still, Trump has signaled optimism as North Korea has not launched any missiles or nuclear tests in 2018 after an active 2017. He tweeted on Christmas Eve that “progress [is] being made” with the rogue regime amid a push to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and that he looks forward to another summit with Kim.
