President Moon Jae-in grants an interview to Reuters at Cheong Wa Dae on June 22. (Cheong Wa Dae)

By Yoon Sojung

President Moon Jae-in said on June 22 that he has “high hopes” for the upcoming summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

In an interview with the U.K.-based Reuters news agency, titled “South Korea president calls on China`s Xi to do more on North Korea nuclear program,” President Moon said, “The priority the two leaders have placed on North Korea has raised the possibility that the nuclear issue will be resolved.”

In regard to North Korean nuclear weapons, President Moon said, “Strong sanctions should be imposed if North Korea tests an intercontinental ballistic missile or conducts a sixth nuclear test.”

“They must be sufficiently strong so that they would prevent North Korea from making any additional provocations, and also strong enough so that they would make North Korea realize that they are going down the wrong path,” the president told Reuters.

In order to resolve North Korean nuclear weapons issues, President Moon said, “Without the assistance of China, sanctions won`t be effective at all,” calling on Beijing to play a bigger role.

“Maybe President Trump believes that there is more room for China to engage North Korea, and it seems that he is urging China to do more. I can also sympathize with that message,” he said.

President Moon said that he hopes to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, next month in order to discuss issues of common interest between Seoul and Beijing, such as North Korean nuclear weapons and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.

The president also told Reuters that he wants to sit down with as many world leaders as possible in Hamburg -- including Xi, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin -- and that he expects the North`s nuclear program to be at the top of many agendas.

Reuters interviews President Moon Jae-in at Cheong Wa Dae on June 22.

President Moon also expressed his views on the issue of a common understanding of history between Korea and Japan.
He said, “If Japan were to show strong resolve in looking back on its past and in sending a message that such actions would never happen again, then I believe that this would go a long way to further developing its relations with not only with Korea but also with many other Asian nations."

In regard to the issue of people who were coerced into sexual slavery during colonial times, the so-called "comfort women," President Moon said, “Many South Koreans do not accept the deal reached by my conservative predecessor and Japan`s Abe in 2015 to resolve the issue of Korea`s ‘comfort women.’”

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