South Korea’s top diplomat says his nation has asked Trump to be a ‘peacemaker’ with North Korea

UNITED NATIONS: South Korea’s president has asked President Donald Trump to become “a peacemaker” and use his leadership to get North Korea to talks to reduce military tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the South’s top diplomat said Friday.

Trump “welcomed” the request from President Lee Jae-myung “and he expressed his willingness to be engaged with North Korea again,” Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said in an interview with The Associated Press. There was no immediate word from the White House.

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met three times as North Korea was building a nuclear weapons stockpile, which Kim views as key to the country’s security and his continued rule of the northeast Asian country.

There were two summits in Singapore in June 2018, and in Vietnam in February 2019, where Trump and Kim disagreed about US-led sanctions against the North. A third meeting that year at the border between the two Koreas failed to salvage their nuclear talks — and Kim has since shunned any diplomacy with the US and South Korea.

“It would be fantastic if they met with each other in the near future,” Cho said. “And President Lee Jae-myung made it clear to President Trump that he will not be sitting in the driver’s seat. He asked president Trump to become a peacemaker, and he relegated himself to become a pacemaker,” the foreign minister said. “We don’t mind. On the contrary, we want president Trump (to) exercise his leadership to pull North Korea to dialogue table.”