South Korea offers to mediate to clear doubts over North Korea-U.S. summit
Source: Reuters
MAY 16, 2018 / 11:26 PM / UPDATED 13 MINUTES AGO
Joyce Lee, Heekyong Yang
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Thursday it intends to play the role of mediator after North Korea threatened to pull out of a summit with the United States aimed at the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
North Korea on Wednesday said it might not attend the June 12 summit in Singapore if the United States continued to demand it unilaterally abandon its nuclear arsenal, which it has developed in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions to counter perceived U.S. hostility.
Doubts over the summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump arose on Wednesday when Pyongyang denounced U.S.-South Korean military exercises as a provocation and called off high-level talks with Seoul.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told parliament that North Korea and the United States had differences of views over how to achieve denuclearisation. Trump acknowledged on Wednesday it was unclear if the summit would go ahead.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-southkorea/south-korea-to-play-mediator-to-resolve-north-korea-u-s-summit-doubts-official-idUSKCN1II0B7