Kim Jong Un was ‘sincere’ in denuclearisation talks: former South Korea president

Former South Korean president Moon Jae-in reveals Kim Jong Un's nuclear disarmament offer in new memoir.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered to give up his nuclear arsenal if America guaranteed his regime would survive, former South Korean president Moon Jae-in said in a recently released memoir.

Mr. Moon, who led South Korea for five years from 2017, was instrumental in brokering two high-profile summit meetings between Mr. Kim and then-United States president Donald Trump, aimed at securing Pyongyang's denuclearisation in return for sanctions relief.

But after the second summit collapsed in 2019, diplomatic outreach was abandoned, with relations between the two Koreas now at one of their worst points in years, as Mr. Kim doubles down on weapons production and draws closer to ally Moscow.

In the memoir released on May 17, titled From the Periphery to the Centre, former president Mr. Moon outlined in great detail his interactions with the North Korean leader.

"Kim said he would forsake nuclear weapons if there was a guarantee of regime survival," Mr. Moon said in the book, adding that he felt the young North Korean leader was "very honest".

According to Mr. Moon, Mr. Kim's reasoning was: "I have a daughter and I do not wish her generation to live with nuclear weapons... Why would we continue to live in difficulty, under sanctions, with nuclear weapons if our security can be guaranteed?"

But the North Korean leader was "well aware of mistrust from the international community and the (belief from the) U.S. that the North had been lying" about its commitments to denuclearisation, Mr. Moon said.