New York, Sept. 22 (SANA) South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has called for easing sanctions on North Korea in exchange for a freeze on Pyongyang’s development of additional nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology, advocating a phased approach to denuclearization.
Lee said sanctions had not been particularly effective and argued that halting further development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology in return for sanctions relief could offer a practical path forward.
“There is significant value in a trade-off between sanctions, which are not particularly effective anyway, and a stop to the development of additional nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology,” Lee told The New York Times.
Lee said seeking immediate denuclearization under current circumstances was unrealistic, calling instead for a step-by-step process beginning with a freeze, followed by reductions and ultimately the dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
In a separate interview with The Associated Press, Lee said South Korea and the United States remained open to talks with North Korea without preconditions and that Seoul would work to help revive dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.
Lee said political decisions at the leadership level would be needed to restart diplomacy, with direct dialogue aimed at building trust and identifying common ground.
The South Korean president is in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, where he is expected to outline his government’s approach to peace on the Korean Peninsula before traveling to Mexico on Wednesday for a summit with President Claudia Sheinbaum.
The proposal comes as the foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States and Japan reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea and called on Pyongyang to return to dialogue during talks in New York on Monday.
R.D/ABD
