South Korea will proceed efforts to facilitate talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
Printed On 18 Sep 2026
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung mentioned on Friday that United States President Donald Trump desires dialogue with Pyongyang and confirmed Seoul won’t be deploying troops to intervene militarily within the Iran struggle.
“Trump clearly desires dialogue with North Korea,” Lee mentioned on Friday.
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He added that whereas such talks are unsure, they aren’t inconceivable.
South Korea was persevering with “preliminary coordination efforts” to facilitate dialogue between North Korea and the US.
“The resumption of North Korea-US dialogue could be far simpler than resuming inter-Korean dialogue,” he mentioned, in response to South Korean information company Yonhap.
Trump, in search of to revive the bond he claims to have cast with North Korean chief Kim Jong Un in his first time period, mentioned he plans to satisfy Kim later this 12 months.
The US president mentioned it was vital to “get alongside” with Kim, including that Pyongyang now had 57 “very highly effective” nuclear weapons.
Seoul has assessed that Pyongyang has about 80-120 nuclear warheads.
North Korea, which has secured crucial backing from Russia in recent times, didn’t clearly reply to Trump.
Inter-Korean relations reached a excessive in 2018 however deteriorated after talks between Kim and Trump collapsed in February 2019.
On Thursday, a court docket in Seoul ordered North Korea to pay roughly $32.5m for blowing up the Inter-Korean Liaison Workplace constructing in 2020. The workplace was meant to enhance relations on the peninsula however was destroyed amid rising tensions between the neighbours.
South Korea is working to strengthen relations with different regional companions. The primary-ever presidential summit between Seoul and 5 Central Asian states was held on Wednesday, aiming to determine deeper financial engagement with the Russian-allied nations.
South Korea won’t dispatch troops
Despite growing pressure from the US, Lee reiterated 3 times that South Korea won’t deploy troops to the Strait of Hormuz.
“Let it’s clear. There might be no dispatch of troops that may result in involvement in a battle. There might be no engagement or involvement in struggle,” Lee mentioned.
The South Korean authorities discovered itself at odds with giant components of Korean society as protests broke out in latest weeks opposing a possible deployment of South Korean army property to the Strait of Hormuz.
Lee added that South Korea will “perform the minimal essential actions” to guard its personal service provider ships and oil delivery routes.
