SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Rival Korean leaders have exchanged letters expressing hope for improving bilateral relations that have collapsed over the past three years due to the freezing of nuclear talks and the accelerated development of nuclear weapons. weapons of North Korea.
North Korean state media reported on Friday that leader Kim Jong Un received a personal letter from South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday and responded to its own letter on Thursday praising Moon’s peace efforts in during his reign.
Pyongyang, the official Korean central news agency, said their letters were exchanged for their “deep trust”. Moon’s office also confirmed that they exchanged a letter with Kim, but did not immediately say what was said.
The exchange of letters took place amid escalating tensions created by North Korea’s weapons series this year, including in March 2017, including the test of the first ICBM to re -launch the nuclear frontier, aimed at forcing the United States. to accept it as a nuclear weapon. .
The South Korean military has also seen signs that North Korea is rebuilding tunnels at a nuclear test site that was partially dismantled weeks before Kim’s first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in June 2018, indicating that the the country is preparing for a nuclear explosion. .
Mooney met with Kim three times in 2018 and lobbied to help Kim get to know Trump. But diplomacy has not yet recovered from the collapse of Kim-Trump’s second meeting in Vietnam in 2019, when Americans rejected North Korea’s requests to ease heavy sanctions in exchange for decommissioning an old nuclear plant that would give them a partial concession. . Nuclear capabilities.
Since then, Kim has vowed to intensify his nuclear deterrence to counter pressure from U.S. “gangsters” and accelerate the development of weapons despite the limited resources and difficulty of the pandemic.
North Korea has also suspended all cooperation with the Moon government and expressed anger at U.S.-South Korean military exercises and Seoul’s inability to obtain concessions from Washington on its behalf.
KCNA said Moon, whose term will end next month, said in a letter to Kim that he would continue efforts to unite rivals in the war, based on their joint statements released after of meetings in 2018.
North Korea will now face a new South Korean leader who could take a tougher stance on Pyongyang. South Korea’s conservative president-elect Yoon Suk-yol, who will take office on May 10 after a narrow election victory on March 9, has refused to continue “talks” with North Korea and vowed to strengthen Seoul’s alliance against Washington and the North West. Threats.
Source: Huffpost
