Moon meets ex-U.S. official who brokered 1994 accord

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Moon meets ex-U.S. official who brokered 1994 accord

President Moon Jae-in met with Robert Gallucci, former U.S. point person on the North Korean nuclear crisis, on Monday to find a peaceful resolution to the rapidly escalating security crisis on the Korean Peninsula, sources at the Blue House said.

According to presidential aides, Moon met for about one hour at the Blue House with Gallucci, who was in Korea to give a special lecture at Yonsei University and attend a debate.

Moon Chung-in, the presidential special advisor, was to moderate the discussion.

Gallucci was the chief U.S. negotiator with the North during the nuclear crisis of 1994. After months of negotiations, Washington and Pyongyang signed the Geneva Agreed Framework, according to which the North agreed to freeze its nuclear programs in return for nonmilitary reactors, economic aids and improved political relations with the United States.

The deal broke down in 2003, after a U.S. delegation confronted the North in 2002 for its clandestine nuclear programs.

The North conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and continued its nuclear and missile programs.

The Blue House said President Moon’s meeting with Gallucci was a private, closed session and did not elaborate.

Presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun and other officials, including National Security Office Chief Chung Eui-yong, reportedly accompanied Moon.

Moon has repeatedly stressed that the ultimate resolution to the North Korean missile and nuclear crisis must be peaceful. His meeting with Gallucci came ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Korea. Gallucci has been critical of the Trump administration’s hawkish approach to the North and urged him to let diplomats handle the situation.

BY SER MYO-JA [ser.myoja@joongang.co.kr]
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