SEOUL, April 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that a denuclearization deal between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States can improve inter-Korean relations.
Moon made the remarks during a meeting with the elder advisory group of the presidential preparation committee for the upcoming inter-Korean summit, according to the Blue House.
The advisory group is composed of former ministers, presidential secretaries, intelligence agency chiefs and scholars who helped the former governments under presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun hold the first and second inter-Korean summits in 2000 and 2008.
President Moon agreed to hold the third summit with top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un on April 27 at Peace House, a South Korean building in the border village of Panmunjom.
"With the South-North agreement alone, inter-Korean relations cannot be resolved. The North (DPRK)-U.S. denuclearization agreement must be implemented, and then the inter-Korean relations can be resolved," Moon said.
Moon said South Korea must successfully hold the upcoming summit to help make the DPRK-U.S. summit a success, but he noted that neither of the summits will be easy to address.
The Moon-Kim summit would be followed by the first-ever meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump, scheduled for late May or early June.
Moon emphasized that the upcoming inter-Korean summit must be taken advantage of as it is a rare opportunity, which is very hard to come again, to go toward the Korean Peninsula's complete denuclearization, permanent peace settlement and sustainable development of inter-Korean relations.
Citing the past agreements between the two Koreas, including those from the two previous inter-Korean summits, Moon said the upcoming summit can be pushed for only based on the past experiences and achievements.
However, he noted that the current relations between the two Koreas cannot be resolved by the government alone, asking the elder advisory group to help gain support and understanding from the public.
