South Korea’s top diplomat says his nation has asked Trump to be a ‘peacemaker’ with North Korea

UNITED NATIONS AP South Korea s president has petitioned President Donald Trump to become a peacemaker and use his leadership to get North Korea to talks to reduce military tensions on the Korean Peninsula the South s top diplomat disclosed Friday Trump welcomed the request from President Lee Jae Myung and he expressed his willingness to be engaged with North Korea again Foreign Minister Cho Hyun revealed in an interview with The Associated Press There was no immediate word from the White House Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met three times as North Korea was building a nuclear weapons stockpile which Kim views as key to the country s shield and his continued rule of the northeast Asian nation There were two summits in Singapore in June and in Vietnam in February where Trump and Kim disagreed about U S -led sanctions against the North A third meeting that year at the demarcation between the two Koreas failed to salvage their nuclear talks and Kim has since shunned any diplomacy with the U S and South Korea It would be fantastic if they met with each other in the near future Cho declared And President Lee Jae Myung made it clear to President Trump that he will not be sitting in the driver s seat He sought president Trump to become a peacemaker and he relegated himself to become a pacemaker the foreign minister declared We don t mind On the contrary we want president Trump to exercise his leadership to pull North Korea to dialogue table Can a meeting happen Since Trump returned to power in January he has repeatedly expressed hope of restarting talks with Kim The North Korean leader noted Monday he still has good memories of Trump but urged the United States to drop its demand that the North surrender its nuclear arms as a precondition for resuming long-stalled diplomacy Trump is expected to visit South Korea next month to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit which has prompted media speculation that he might meet Kim again at the frontier Trump is also expected to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during that meeting The foreign minister commented Lee sought Trump to take the lead because the world has changed and become much more precarious since Russia invaded Ukraine in Accordingly we are equally worried about any doable military skirmish on the Korean Peninsula Cho explained So we are compelled to explore dialogues with North Korea to reduce the military tension and at least we want to have a hotline He stressed that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the imperative we cannot let it go Tensions between the Koreas continue apace Early Friday South Korea s military announced it fired warning shots to drive away a North Korean merchant ship that briefly crossed the disputed western sea boundary between the two countries amid continuing high tensions I m not surprised at all Cho stated but this happening justifies the approach of the new leadership that we need to have a hotline between the militaries reduce the military tension and build confidence between the two parties Lee who headed the left-leaning Democratic Party won a snap vote in June following the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December Cho a career diplomat and former U N ambassador took office as foreign minister on July In Lee s speech to the annual meeting of world leaders at the U N General Assembly on Tuesday he mentioned South Korea has come back to the international society as a normal state after the domestic turmoil and has demonstrated its commitment to democracy Cho mentioned he felt a bit uncomfortable talking about the previous executive compared to the current authorities since Yoon was elected But Cho recalled that when Yoon who had been a prosecutor was elected he was convinced he would become an aberration Peace is the priority the diplomat says Since becoming foreign minister Cho commented he has been explaining to neighboring countries including during visits to Japan and China that the new cabinet is determined to seek peace on the Korean Peninsula and also in northeast Asia He revealed the governing body wants to engage China and he had a very good constructive meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi but I made it clear that there are certain things we cannot accept Cho referred to China s installation of something in the Yellow Sea that infringes on South Korea s sovereignty So we made it clear that it be removed Otherwise we would think about taking proper measures he explained Cho flew to Washington without delay after a massive raid by U S immigration officers at a Hyundai plant in southeast Georgia detained people the majority of them South Koreans It became a major diplomatic issue between the two countries The minister commented Trump intervened and needed them to remain but they were chained and handcuffed and his primary objective was to get them back home Cho noted his talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio ended up having a silver lining because obtaining visas for South Korean workers has been a longstanding obstacle and we were able to address this issue squarely and we will be able to sort out the dilemma Edith M Lederer has covered international affairs for The Associated Press for more than a half century Source