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Visitors to the Mt. Ohdu Unification Observatory in Paju, Gyeonggi Province look across the DMZ to North Korea on Apr. 24. (by Kim Bong-gyu, staff photographer)
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A pre-summit phone call between Moon and Kim seems unlikely to take place
Even though a direct hotline between the offices of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been successfully connected, the two leaders have delayed having an actual phone call. Since preparations for the inter-Korean summit that will be held at Panmunjeom on Apr. 27 are going smoothly, some are saying that a phone call between the leaders and high-level talks to discuss the details of the agenda may not take place. “The two leaders might speak on the phone before the meeting, or they might do so afterward. Since they’re going to have a face-to-face conversation for several hours [three days from now], one might wonder if they really need to talk on the phone. Their phone call wouldn’t be about anything of substance, so you have to ask whether that kind of symbolic act is really necessary,” a senior official at the Blue House told reporters on Apr. 24. After leading a special delegation to North Korea from Mar. 5 to 6, Blue House National Security Office Director Chung Eui-yong said in a statement that “South and North Korea have agreed to install a hotline between their leaders aimed at easing military tensions and holding close deliberations and to have their first phone call before the third inter-Korean summit.” Accordingly, the hotline between the leaders was successfully connected on Apr. 20, and a Blue House secretary named Song In-bae and a staff member at North Korea’s State Affairs Commission tested the line during a phone call that lasted for 4 minutes and 20 seconds. The decreasing likelihood of the leaders speaking on the phone prior to the summit appears to reflect both the desire to focus attention to the summit on Apr. 27 and the North Korean aversion to letting Kim’s schedule and movements become public. “We would like to make decisions through working-level and high-level meetings and present these to the public in detail, but the culture in North Korea appears to be a little different. Considering that we’ve agreed to discuss everything during the summit between the leaders and that there are several [existing] channels for us to contact each other, there’s also a feeling that holding several meetings may not really be necessary,” said a senior official at the Blue House. By Kim Bo-hyeop, staff reporter Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
