SEOUL: Outgoing South Korean President Moon Jae-in said this week that a restart of North Korea's nuclear or long-range missile tests would "instantly" plunge the peninsula back into crisis, and called for efforts to prevent this.
Moon's efforts to engineer a breakthrough as his term ends in May were highlighted by a record month of North Korean missile testing in January, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has hinted that he may order new nuclear tests or intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches for the first time since 2017.
"If North Korea's series of missile launches goes as far as scrapping a moratorium on long-range missile tests, the Korean Peninsula may instantly fall back into the state of crisis we faced five years ago," Moon said in a written interview with media in Seoul scheduled for publication on Thursday.
"Preventing such a crisis through persistent dialogue and diplomacy will be the task that political leaders in the countries concerned must fulfil together."
Moon conceded that a last-minute meeting with Kim or the adoption of his plan for a proclamation ending the 1950-1953 Korean War before he leaves office is unrealistic.
Nonetheless, he stated that the US and South Korea have agreed on the declaration's content and that a meeting between Kim and US President Joe Biden is "just a matter of time" if all parties want to avoid a crisis.
"Since dialogue is the only way to resolve problems, a meeting between President Biden and Chairman Kim is expected to take place eventually," he said.
Moon has advocated for a formal conclusion to the Korean War to replace the armistice that ended the fighting but left the country and the United Nations Command, which is commanded by the United States, technically at war.
"I would at least like to make conditions ripe for an end-of-war declaration and pass that on to the next administration," he said.
Moon said his most rewarding achievement was helping "shift the direction toward dialogue and diplomacy rather than military confrontation."
The failure of the US-North Korea summit in Hanoi, where Kim and then-US President Donald Trump walked away with no deal on decreasing North Korea's nuclear weapons or missiles in exchange for lifting international sanctions, is the greatest regret of his time, he added.
"It is very regrettable that the summit ended in 'no deal' when the continuation of dialogue should have been ensured at least," he said, arguing that a smaller, phased deal should still have been pursued when it became clear that a "big deal" was out of reach.
"Still now, if they learn from that experience and put their heads together to discuss mutually acceptable, realistic measures... I believe there will be ample opportunities to find a solution," he added.
The Biden administration has stated that it is willing to meet with North Korean officials at any moment and without conditions, but Pyongyang has stated that conversations will not resume unless Washington and Seoul abandon "hostile policies" such as military drills, sanctions, and arms buildups.
Despite the delayed discussions and rising tensions, Moon claims that "necessary communication" with Kim has persisted, and that Biden has not returned to the Obama administration's "strategic patience" tactics since he continues to make actual steps to restart the conversation.
"We cannot afford to give up this task," he said.