South Korean President Moon Jae-in was pushing to meet U.S. President Donald Trump around mid-May before a summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), local media reported Wednesday.
An unnamed senior Blue House official of South Korea told local reporters that the South Korea-U.S. summit seemed to be held around mid-May though the exact date of Moon's visit to the United States had yet to be finalized.
Moon and Kim are scheduled to meet Friday at the border village of Panmunjom in what would be the third-ever inter-Korean summit. It is forecast to be followed in late May or early June by the Trump-Kim summit, the first-ever U.S.-DPRK meeting of leaders.
Moon is expected to coordinate with Trump on the results of his summit meeting with Kim to help make the DPRK-U.S. summit successful.
The South Korean leader has said the inter-Korean summit will end up a success only with the successful DPRK-U.S. summit, showing his willingness to play a mediating role between Pyongyang and Washington.
Chung Eui-yong, top national security advisor for Moon, met his U.S. counterpart John Bolton in Washington ahead of the inter-Korean summit, the Blue House said.
Chung and Bolton finished coordination to prepare for the inter-Korean summit, including ways of close cooperation between Seoul and Washington in achieving the goal of the denuclearized Korean Peninsula.
The Blue House and the White House security advisors also discussed situations after the inter-Korean summit.
Moon and Trump agreed to share the result of the inter-Korean summit via phone right after the end of the summit, according to the Blue House.
Chung and Bolton discussed ways to push for the meeting between Moon and Trump before the expected summit between Trump and the DPRK leader.
After meeting with Bolton, Chung said his meeting with the White House security advisor was very substantive and helpful, adding that Seoul and Washington agreed to closely cooperate for the success of the U.S.-DPRK summit.
