South Korea's Moon Jae-in says Olympics could be chance to restart US-North Korea talks

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday said that Tokyo Olympics could be an opportunity to restart dialogue between the United States and North Korea, Japan and North Korea, Japan and South Korea. Moon further added that the games could also provide a chance to reopen talks between South and North Korea, which have deteriorated since Pyongyang started testing long-range ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. Moon said that the Olympic games scheduled for later this year could be the best chance for all these countries to restart stalled talks. 

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The United States and North Korea held talks for the first time in history after former US President Donald Trump met Kim Jong Un in Singapore in 2019. However, the talks reached a dead-end after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. South Korean President Moon Jae-in believes the Olympic games could be an opportunity to reopen the dialogue between the two countries and also between South and North Korea, Japan and North Korea, Japan and South Korea. 

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Calls for renewed talks with Japan

Moon, while speaking at a ceremony marking the 102nd Independence Movement Day anniversary, expressed his desire to restart talks with Tokyo on scores of issues, including the recent spat over South Korean courts ordering Japanese companies to pay compensation to wartime victims. A Seoul court recently ordered a Japanese company to pay compensation to World War II victims, who were forced to work at brothels during the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula. 

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Japan opposes the order arguing the issues were settled in treaties signed between the two countries in 1965 and 2015. Moon says that he is willing to discuss all these issues with Japanese officials as he suggested renewed talks between South Korea and Japan. 

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