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SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Friday that US President Donald Trump clearly wants dialogue with Pyongyang and confirmed Seoul will not be deploying troops to intervene militarily in the Iran war.<\/p>\n
Trump, seeking to revive the bond he claims to have forged with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his first term, said last month that he plans to meet Kim later this year.<\/p>\n
The US president also said it was important to \u201cget along\u201d with Kim, adding that Pyongyang now had 57 \u201cvery powerful\u201d nuclear weapons. Seoul says there are around 80-120.<\/p>\n
North Korea, which has secured critical backing from Russia in recent years, did not clearly respond to Trump\u2019s overtures.<\/p>\n
Lee said Friday it was \u201cclear\u201d that \u201cTrump wants dialogue, and I am also urging President Trump to engage in dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Korea — which Pyongyang has repeatedly labelled as its enemy — was continuing \u201cpreliminary coordination efforts\u201d to facilitate dialogue between North Korea and the United States, Lee told reporters at the presidential Blue House.<\/p>\n
He added that such a meeting \u201cremains difficult, … but is not impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot say for certain how likely it is, but it is also clear that we must make every possible effort to turn that possibility into reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lee\u2019s comment came hours after the North Korean leader\u2019s powerful sister accused the United States of escalating regional tensions through frequent military drills and warned of a \u201cmore offensive\u201d response from Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
A day before, Kim Yo Jong said only \u2018idiots\u2019 think North Korea will give up its nukes.<\/p>\n
Korea and the United States last month held a shorter edition of their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises, following an order from Trump to scale them back.<\/p>\n
\u2018No, Thank you\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n The South Korean President also said that Seoul will not deploy troops to intervene militarily in the Iran war.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be no involvement or intervention in the war. We will not deploy troops or military assets in that manner,\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n Lee\u2019s answer follows reports that Seoul was weighing a possible deployment to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key flashpoint in the war launched by Israel and the United States against Iran.<\/p>\n He added that South Korea will \u201ccarry out the minimum necessary activities,\u201d to protect their own merchant ships and oil shipping routes.<\/p>\n Lee reiterated three times that South Korea would not deploy troops in a way that could lead to military intervention.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have upheld the principle of non-involvement and non-intervention in the war until now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we will continue to uphold it going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump complained in an interview late last month that Washington had received \u201cvery little help\u201d from other countries, singling out South Korea — its key security ally in Asia — as an example.<\/p>\n \u201cWe help them, but when it came to helping us, I didn\u2019t put on a heavy sell; But I just said, \u2018Would you like to participate?\u2019\u201d Trump said in an interview with Fox News.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd they all said, \u2018No, thank you.\u2019 And I said, \u2018I\u2019m going to remember that to myself,\u2019\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The United States stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to bolster the country\u2019s defences, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.<\/p>\n However, Trump\u2019s repeated criticism of time-honoured alliances has cast doubt on US commitments to security in East Asia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n