Kim Jong-un’s much anticipated trip to Seoul may be delayed until early next year, Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, told parliamentary leaders on Monday.
The government is considering whether the visit, which would be the fourth face-to-face meeting between the two leaders and the first ever venture of a North Korean head of state to the South, should fall before or after a second summit between Kim and Donald Trump, the US President.
“For now, we’re making preparations on the assumption that it’s going to take place within this year,” Mr Moon said of his own meeting with Kim, reported the Yonhap news agency.
He added he hoped the visit to Seoul would serve as a dramatic turning point in relations between North and South.
The plan to meet in the South Korean capital was conceived in Pyongyang, during Mr Moon’s high profile first trip to the North in September.
His three day visit was charged with symbolism, including a spontaneous journey together to Mount Paektu, the spiritual birthplace of the Korean nation, and the president is reported to already be fretting about how he can reciprocate the gesture.
According to UPI, Mr Moon told parliamentarians that he was concerned about the logistics of taking Kim to Mount Halla, a dormant volcano and the highest mountain in South Korea, as promised.
“Since I myself have been to the Cheonji crater lake [on Mount Paektu], I had told Chairman Kim I would take him to Mount Halla, but since there is no helipad on Mount Halla I am worried,” he reportedly said.
However, whether the visit goes ahead at all may hinge on the success of talks between Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, and Kim Yong-chol, one of North Korea’s most senior officials, in New York on Thursday.
The two men will meet to discuss progress on denuclearisation and are expected to also broach the subject of a second US-North Korea summit, following on from the first historic meeting between Kim and President Trump in Singapore in June.
The two will "discuss making progress on all four pillars of the Singapore Summit joint statement, including achieving the final, fully verified denuclearisation of (North Korea)," the State Department said in a statement about this week’s meeting.
Evan Vucci/AP
The talks come at a time when the two sides are once again at loggerheads over how to move forward on nuclear disarmament.
North Korea’s foreign ministry warned over the weekend that Pyongyang would “seriously” consider reviving its nuclear weapons programme unless US sanctions are lifted.
However, Mr Pompeo said on Sunday that he expected to “make some real progress” with Mr Kim, a former top intelligence chief and right-hand man to the North Korean leader, in terms of laying the groundwork for a second summit with the US president.
Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Mr Pompeo dismissed the North Korean threats to resume nuclear activities as “rhetoric.”
“I’m not worried about rhetoric. We’ve seen this as we go through negotiations. Stray voltage happens to be all around us,” he said.
“We’re very focused. We know with whom we’re negotiating. We know what their positions are. And President Trump’s made his position very clear: No economic relief until we have achieved our ultimate objective.”