Global Economy

Moon's Push to Ease North Korea Sanctions Falls Flat



South Korea’s president’s attempt to rally European support for loosening sanctions on North Korea appeared to fall flat this week, and risked putting him further at odds with the Trump administration’s efforts to maintain pressure on Pyongyang.

Following rapidly thawing relations between Seoul and Pyongyang this year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in used a nine-day trip through Paris, Rome, Vatican City, Brussels and Copenhagen to urge greater engagement with North Korea. His pitch: this could speed up the country’s denuclearization.

Mr. Moon is hoping European leaders will back his approach emphasizing dialogue and engagement, similar to the one they have pursued with Iran and, before the Trump administration, with North Korea.

But the strategy also carries risk at a time of growing friction between Seoul and its ally in Washington, which continues to maintain—and even increase—pressure on Pyongyang.

Even in Europe, which has long maintained diplomatic ties with Pyongyang and welcomed talks between North and South Korea, there was coolness, at best, toward Mr. Moon’s sanctions-easing message.

While Mr. Moon said Friday that talks were “definitely on the right track,” European officials insisted pressure must be kept up.

European Council President Donald Tusk praised Mr. Moon’s personal efforts to engage in a “credible and meaningful dialogue” with Pyongyang. However, he said the EU supports the “full implementation of all relevant UN Security Council resolutions” sanctioning North Korea over its missile and nuclear program.

One senior European diplomat said there was some consternation in the bloc that Seoul was pushing for sanctions relief before a permanent denuclearization process had been established.

With Europe and the U.S. already at loggerheads about a number of diplomatic files, the diplomat also said the European Union was remaining “rock hard” on Washington’s determination to maintain sanctions pressure, having insisted on this in recent discussions with South Korean counterparts. Unusually, there will be no statement released after Friday’s EU–South Korea summit. That was “partly because of differing thinking” on North Korea, the diplomat said.

Should North Korea’s denuclearization process reach “an irreversible stage,” Mr. Moon told U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May in a meeting Friday, “there needs to be humanitarian aid or sanctions relief for North Korea,” adding that “discussions for this process need to take place among the UN Security Council,” according to a statement by the Moon administration.

A spokesman for Mrs. May said “it was important for DPRK to take concrete steps towards denuclearization, and pressure should be maintained on DPRK with sanctions,” the spokesman said, referring to North Korea by the acronym for its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

During his Monday meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Mr. Moon likewise urged Mr. Macron to reward North Korea’s steps toward denuclearization. Mr. Moon pointed to the North’s willingness to open up its Punggye-ri underground nuclear test site to international inspectors as a sign of leader Kim Jong Un’s sincerity in denuclearizing.

However, like Mrs. May, Mr. Macron insisted the sanctions pressure must be maintained until the North takes more concrete steps to scrap its nuclear and missile program. France and Britain both hold seats on the UN Security Council.

“Mr. Moon’s main goal during his trip to Europe was to lift EU sanctions,” said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, the KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Institute for European Studies in Brussels.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un hosted a friendly summit with South Korea’s president, while trying to nudge forward denuclearization talks with Washington. The WSJ’s Jonathan Cheng explains. Photo: Pyongyang Press Corps via AP

Mr. Pacheco Pardo said he believes the EU will be more open to North Korea engagement following Mr. Moon’s trip, but added that the bloc wouldn’t likely budge from its insistence on the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear program, as laid out by the U.N.

In addition to signing up to U.N. sanctions, the EU has worked actively to press African and Asian countries to fully implement the restrictions in the past year. The bloc has also imposed its own unanimous sanctions, which go further than U.N. measures.

Mr. Moon’s sanctions push risks angering Washington, which fears that relieving the North’s isolation could undermine leverage in denuclearization talks.

U.S. officials have said improving relations with North Korea must be tied to the nuclear issue, and that sanctions will remain in place until North Korea abandons its nuclear and missile program entirely.

Even so, Mr. Moon has played something of a surrogate role for Mr. Kim on the diplomatic stage in recent months, urging the international community to build more ties with North Korea.

“South Korea’s front role should be convincing other countries to maintain sanctions not help delegitimize them,” Chun Young-woo, former South Korean national security adviser, said Thursday.

Mr. Moon met Pope Francis in the Vatican on Thursday and delivered what he described as a message from the North Korean leader inviting the pontiff to visit Pyongyang. Pope Francis said he would consider a trip when he receives an official invitation from the North.

Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com



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