Photo : YONHAP News
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young met on Monday with former U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun, who also led the working-level negotiations with Pyongyang during the first Donald Trump administration.
During the meeting in Seoul, Chung expressed hope that this fall will bring a decisive moment that moves both sides beyond the past seven years of disconnection and loss and allows for a new beginning on the Korean Peninsula.
The minister said the time has again come for Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to move the clock forward, adding that the current period is a crucial one as President Lee Jae Myung’s leadership and Trump’s are working in tandem.
Beigun, for his part, said he’d previously revealed his thoughts on Pyongyang and Washington during a conference held last week in Incheon.
Speaking at the West Coast Exchange conference hosted by the Korea Risk Group on Thursday, Biegun said Trump may propose a meeting with Kim after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China, and that it “would not be a surprise at all” if he suggested holding it in Pyongyang.