South Korean President Moon Jae-in praised North Korea's offer to dismantle a key nuclear production complex as an "irreversible" step to undercut its weapons program, breaking with the Trump administration.
In a meeting to discuss the summit last week in Hanoi between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, Moon on Monday lauded North Korea's offer to dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear complex. He also called for pushing ahead with inter-Korean projects currently hindered by sanctions and said the two sides discussed the "partial" lifting of sanctions — backing North Korea's version of events.
"It would represent an irreversible stage in North Korea's denuclearization if the Yongbyon nuclear complex including its plutonium reprocessing facilities and uranium enrichment facilities are completely dismantled," Moon told senior aides Monday at a National Security Council meeting.
Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said they couldn't accept the proposal from North Korea to shut down the Yongbyon complex in return for complete sanctions relief because the regime still had hidden production facilities and missiles elsewhere that could threaten the U.S.
"That facility, while very big, it wasn't enough to do what we were doing," Trump said last week in Hanoi, referring to Yongbyon.
Moon has endeavored to serve as a bridge between Trump and Kim and has staked political capital on bringing peace to the divided peninsula.
Yongbyon, long at the heart of the reclusive state's nuclear program, has seen its importance drop in recent years as North Korea turned to other secret facilities to produce fissile material for bombs and missiles that could carry a warhead to the U.S. mainland.
Trump said he was impressed that Kim was willing to lose a "very big" facility. But after the Hanoi talks broke down, he also said he had pressed Kim on other nuclear sites uncovered by U.S. intelligence.
