SEOUL, South Korea -- President Moon Jae-in of South Korea urged the United States on Thursday to declare an end to the Korean War as an incentive for North Korea to denuclearize, a call that could put President Donald Trump's administration in a bind as it tries to revive stalled talks with Kim Jong Un, the North's leader.
Moon said that during his three-day summit with Kim this week, the North's leader had repeatedly expressed willingness to give up his nuclear weapons quickly and to build new relations with Washington.
"He again and again reaffirmed his commitment to denuclearization," Moon said at a news conference in Seoul, the South's capital, after returning from North Korea. "He said he wanted to achieve complete denuclearization as soon as possible and focus on economic development."
To "expedite denuclearization," Moon said, Kim also hopes to meet Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, and to hold a second meeting with Trump as soon as possible. Trump and Kim first met in Singapore in June.
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One of the first steps Kim wants to take before moving toward denuclearization, Moon said, is to secure a joint statement declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War, which was halted only with an armistice.
U.S. and South Korean analysts express fear that such a declaration would give Kim reason to demand that the United States withdraw its 28,500 troops from the South while North Korea is still a nuclear-armed state. But Moon said it would be merely a "political statement," and that it would not affect the status of U.S. troops in South Korea or his country's alliance with the United States.
"I confirmed with Chairman Kim that his concept of the end-of-war declaration is the same as mine," Moon said.
The South Korean leader said he would discuss making such a declaration by the end of the year when he meets with Trump in New York on Monday for the annual U.N. General Assembly session.
Earlier Thursday, Moon and Kim ascended Baekdusan, a still-active volcano near North Korea's border with China that reaches more than 9,000 feet and looms large in the history and imaginations of Koreans on both sides of the border.
Baekdusan, sometimes called Mount Paektu in English and known as Changbaishan in Chinese, is the mythical birthplace of the Korean people. The visit there by the two leaders punctuated their avowed intent to improve and normalize relations.
"This is an important first step," Moon, an avid hiker who said he had long dreamed of climbing the mountain, told reporters at the peak. "I trust that the time will come when ordinary South Koreans will be able to come here on tours."
Kim also said he hoped South Koreans would soon be able to visit the mountain. "Since the division of Korea, people in the South have had a longing for the mountain but could not come."
The visit offered both leaders an important photo opportunity and a propaganda victory. For Kim, Moon's trip was a visit to the purported heart of the North's communist revolution, the site at which his grandfather, Kim Il Sung led a guerrilla war against Japanese colonialists in the early 20th century, and where his father, Kim Jong Il, was born, according to North Korean propaganda. (Historians say Kim Jong Il was born in the Russian Far East, not in Kim Il Sung's "secret camp" at the foot of Baekdusan, as the North claims.)
Moon and Kim on Wednesday signed a series of agreements that Choi Jong-kun, Moon's secretary for arms control, called a "de facto nonaggression treaty."
Both sides agreed to create no-fly and no-hostility zones, and to stop live-fire drills along their land and sea border. They also agreed to disarm Panmunjom, the truce village in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone, where North Korean troops fired at a North Korean soldier who defected to the South last year.
Moon and Kim also agreed to open a facility near Mount Kumgang, in the southeastern part of North Korea, where relatives separated by the Korean War could hold regular reunions, and they said they would make a joint bid to host the 2032 Olympics.
Meanwhile, the U.S. hopes to begin face-to-face negotiations with North Korea next month on terms for resuming searches in North Korea for remains of American servicemen, a senior Pentagon official said Thursday.
Kelly McKeague, director of the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency, said the aim is to begin searches at former battlefields next spring if agreement can be reached on areas of current dispute such as the types and amounts of compensation to North Korea for its assistance.
Remains of two American servicemen killed during the Korean War and returned by North Korea two months ago have been identified, but McKeague would not disclose their names. He said the White House wants to do that. The remains were among an undetermined number contained in 55 boxes that the North Korean army turned over to U.S. officials on July 27.
Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/21/2018