Moon shines as he drives diplomacy with Pyongyang

To his supporters, South Korean President Moon Jae-in is a master negotiator who's fixing decades of bad nuclear diplomacy with North Korea. To his critics, he's falling prey to the same old trap that has claimed previous South Korean presidents — but with an important difference: This time the stakes are much higher.

FILE - In this April 27, 2018, file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in raise their hands after signing a joint statement at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone. Moon has stepped into the spotlight as he drives a new global push to settle the nuclear standoff with Pyongyang. (Korea Summit Press Pool via AP, File)

Whoever's right, it's hard to ignore Moon's role as the architect behind a new global push to settle the nuclear standoff with the North. The outcome of his efforts may hinge on a meeting in Singapore next month between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, who spent months contemplating military strikes against the North before Moon steered him to the table.

Moon, a soft-spoken liberal, last month hosted Kim in a summit that saw them stride hand-in-hand across the border and pledge the "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula, an ambitious declaration that was light on specifics.

Moon doesn't have the power to resolve North Korea's weapons programs on his own. But in hustling between Pyongyang and Washington to set up the Kim-Trump summit and offering to broker other meetings with Pyongyang, Moon is fulfilling his promise to push South Korea into the driver's seat in diplomacy with the North.

FILE - In this May 9, 2018, file photo, South Korean President Moon Jae-in attends their trilateral summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at Akasaka Palace state guesthouse in Tokyo. Moon has stepped into the spotlight as he drives a new global push to settle the nuclear standoff with Pyongyang. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool Photo via AP, File)

"South Korea has never had a leader like Moon, who actively embraced a leading role in planning and coordinating a global approach to the North," said Hong Min, a senior analyst at Seoul's Korea Institute for National Unification. "He managed to convince Washington that Pyongyang would change course after a year of brinkmanship. He convinced Pyongyang he would be able to move Washington."

Despite the dangers — a derailed Trump-Kim summit might revive the animosity that enveloped the peninsula last year — Moon's push has proven wildly popular: A Gallup Korea poll last week measured his approval rating at 83 percent, a striking number in a country deeply divided along ideological and generational lines.

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PULLING THE STRINGS

Moon's central presence could be seen Wednesday in a three-way meeting in Tokyo when he got the premiers of Japan and China to issue a joint statement in support of the inter-Korean declaration, which he's looking to sell as a meaningful breakthrough that could create a positive atmosphere for the Kim-Trump meeting.

The recent flurry of diplomatic activity was almost unimaginable for most of last year when the North ripped off a torrid run of weapons tests, including an underground detonation of a purported thermonuclear warhead and three separate tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles with a range that could strike the continental United States. Kim and Trump exchanged insults and threats of nuclear annihilation, drowning out Moon's repeated calls for diplomacy.

The dynamics shifted after Kim used his New Year's speech to propose talks with the South to reduce animosity. The North then sent hundreds of people to the Pyeongchang Winter Games in the South, including Kim's sister, who conveyed her brother's desire for a summit with Moon. Moon later brokered the meeting between Kim and Trump.

FILE - In this May 11, 2018, file photo, a man watches a TV screen showing file footage of U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea. The outcome of South Korean President Moon Jae-in's efforts may hinge on a meeting in Singapore in June between Kim and Trump, who spent months contemplating military strikes against the North before Moon steered him to the table. The letters read "Summit between U.S. and North Korea, Forecast, Clear." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

FILE - In this July 29, 2017, file photo, people watch a TV news program showing an image of North Korea's latest test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has stepped into the spotlight as he drives a new global push to settle the nuclear standoff with Pyongyang.The signs read "North Korea launched an ICBM missile at 11:41 p.m. last night." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

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FINDING HIS SPACE

Moon, the son of North Korean war refugees, has vowed to build on the legacies of late liberal Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun and their so-called "Sunshine Policy," which Moon had a hand in building. Seoul's economic inducements resulted in a temporary rapprochement and two summits with the North in 2000 and 2007 that involved Kim Jong Un's late father, Kim Jong Il. Critics say it gave the North a lifeline as it pursued its nuclear dreams.

Moon says the decade of hard-line conservative policies he ended when elected last year did nothing to stop Pyongyang's weapons advancements. He has balanced his criticism of the North's nuclear program with hints of ambitious economic promises in exchange for a "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization."

While Moon is in a significantly tougher spot than his liberal predecessors, who governed when the North's nuclear threat was nascent, he also has more time — four more years in his term — and political space to assert his voice.

Kim Dae-jung's engagement with North Korea was often a source of discord with the hard-line administration of former President George W. Bush. Disagreements between Washington and Seoul continued during Roh's government, and the Koreas were never able to build on Roh's last-minute summit with Kim Jong Il in 2007.

For all their differences in personality, Moon has been able to maintain a coordinated approach with Trump on North Korea. Moon has so far stayed firm on sanctions, and he offered vocal support to Trump's pressure campaign last year during the North's weapons tests. While reaching out to the North in past months, Moon has credited Trump at every step, even suggesting that he take the Nobel Peace Prize if there's peace in Korea.

"It's not a bad way to approach the North — Moon playing the good cop to Trump's bad cop," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University.

FILE - In this May 9, 2018, file photo, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, left, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in pose for photographers prior to their summit in Tokyo. Moon has stepped into the spotlight as he drives a new global push to settle the nuclear standoff with Pyongyang. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool, File)

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WILL KIM DENUKE?

There are doubts about whether Kim will ever agree to fully relinquish the nukes he likely sees as his only guarantee of survival.

Moon has maintained that Kim is genuinely interested in dealing away his nuclear weapons in return for economic benefits. But North Korea for decades has been pushing a concept of "denuclearization" that bears no resemblance to the American definition. The North vows to pursue nuclear development unless Washington removes its troops from the South and the nuclear umbrella defending South Korea and Japan.

Moon may face credibility problems if it becomes clear that Kim won't give up his nukes easily. Seoul could also be pushed aside if Washington chooses to deal more directly with China, the North's only major ally and economic lifeline. Moon has been upstaged by separate summits between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping, which were seen as strengthening the positions of both countries ahead of the Kim-Trump talks.

The focus may now shift from Moon to Kim, who some believe may want to drag out negotiations until Trump is replaced by a U.S. president seen as less willing to ponder the use of military force against the North at the risk of triggering war.

Another scenario has Kim seeking a deal where he gives away his ICBMs but retains some of his shorter-range arsenal in return for a reduced U.S. military presence in the South. This could satisfy Trump but undermine the alliance between Washington and Seoul.

FILE -- In this June 14, 2000, file photo, then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, left, and then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il raise their arms together before signing a joint declaration during a summit in Pyongyang, North Korea. Current South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the son of North Korean war refugees, has vowed to build on the legacies of late liberal Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun and their so-called “Sunshine Policy,” which Moon had a hand in building. (Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 4, 2007, file photo, then South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, left, holds hands with then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il after exchanging a joint declaration documents in Pyongyang, North Korea. Current South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the son of North Korean war refugees, has vowed to build on the legacies of late liberal Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun and their so-called “Sunshine Policy,” which Moon had a hand in building. (Pool Photo via AP, File)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A high-level North Korean economic delegation was on its way to Iran, the North's state media said Wednesday, for what would be the two countries’ first known talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Embracing the idea of a “new Cold War,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is pushing to build up cooperation with countries confronting the United States, as his intensified weapons tests prompted the U.S. and South Korea to expand their military drills.

Pyongyang's delegation led by Yun Jung Ho, North Korea’s minster of external economic relations, flew out Tuesday for the trip to Iran, official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. State media did not immediately provide further details.

Pyongyang and Tehran are among the few governments in the world that support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and both have been accused of providing Russia with military equipment.

The last known time North Korea sent senior officials to Iran was in August 2019, when a group led by Pak Chol Min, vice chair of Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament, made a weeklong visit. The two countries had active diplomatic exchanges until North Korea sealed its borders in an effort to stave off the pandemic, before a cautious reopening in 2023.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs with the North, did not immediately comment Yun’s visit to Iran.

North Korea has made efforts for months to boost the visibility of its ties with Russia and China as Kim attempts to break out of diplomatic isolation and join a united front against the U.S.

In 2023, Kim visited Russia’s Far East for a rare summit with Putin, which highlighted the countries’ expanding military cooperation, including the North’s alleged transfers of artillery shells, missiles, and other munitions to Russia.

Earlier this month, Kim hosted top Chinese official Zhao Leji, who heads the ceremonial parliament and ranks third in the ruling Communist Party hierarchy. It was the highest-level meeting between the countries in years.

On Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s powerful sister, slammed the latest rounds of U.S.-South Korean joint military drills and insisted that the allies will never break the North’s determination to build up “our overwhelming and most powerful military muscle.”

The statement comes a week after U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield called for the international community to be alert to the possibility of military cooperation between North Korea, Iran and Russia. Iran has been accused of providing drones to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine.

“We are concerned about … the Iranians providing weapons to the Russians and the Russians also supporting efforts to help (North Korea) expand their own research into developing weapons. And certainly, that would be the case with Iran as well,” she said.

FILE - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a press conference at the American Diplomacy House in Seoul, on April 17, 2024. A high-level North Korean economic delegation is traveling to Iran for what would be the two countries’ first talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the heavily sanctioned nations align in face of their separate confrontations with the United States. (Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 2, 2019. A high-level North Korean economic delegation is traveling to Iran for what would be the two countries’ first talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the heavily sanctioned nations align in face of their separate confrontations with the United States. (Jorge Silva/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, meets Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress of China, in Pyongyang, North Korea on April 13, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)