Minister Chung Dong-young of the Unification Ministry said on the 8th that an adjustment to the South Korea-U.S. combined exercises is inevitable if a U.S.-North Korea summit is to take place in the first half of next year.
Minister Chung told reporters after a lecture at the Jeongto Society and Culture Center in Seocho District that day for the "2025 Youth Festa," "It is a very sensitive issue, but we cannot move toward a U.S.-North Korea meeting while conducting South Korea-U.S. military exercises."
In the lecture, Minister Chung presented as a priority task for resuming long-frozen inter-Korean relations the realization of a meeting between Kim Jong-un, chairperson of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, and President Donald Trump. Minister Chung said, "They could have met on the sidelines of the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit in Gyeongju, but it seems the North miscalculated."
President Trump expressed willingness several times to meet with Chairperson Kim ahead of last month's visit to South Korea. But the meeting did not happen because North Korea did not respond.
Minister Chung also said, "Around the time President Trump visits Beijing in April next year for a U.S.-China summit will be a decisive period," adding, "We must work diligently for five months from this month through March next year for a U.S.-North Korea leaders' meeting."
Minister Chung saw North Korea as continually sending the signal that "to have U.S.-North Korea talks, the policy of hostility must change." Chung cited the lifting of the ban on travel to North Korea for U.S. citizens as an example.
After a planned U.S.-North Korea meeting fell through on the sidelines of last month's APEC summit, Minister Chung, referring to the "broad-minded and more proactive preemptive measures" foreshadowed by President Lee, said, "Have we not already spoken of restoring the Sept. 19 inter-Korean military agreement," adding, "Halting military exercises around the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) will be the first step."