内容摘要：In an image captured from a tweet by Dan Scavino Jr., the White House director of social media, U.S.

In an image captured from a tweet by Dan Scavino Jr., the White House director of social media, U.S. President Donald Trump, left and officials involved in North Korea discuss the situation in Washington, Saturday (KST). / Yonhap

By Park Ji-won, Kim Yoo-chul

South Korea is hopeful the momentum toward the North's denuclearization will be kept alive, despite U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korean capital of Pyongyang being delayed.

Seoul's foreign ministry said Sunday South Korea would never stop communicating with the U.S. in Seoul's quest for nuclear negotiations, regardless of the delay.

Foreign Minister Kan Kyung-hwa spoke with Pompeo over the phone immediately after the decision and agreed that the allies "should work" to keep the overall circumstances of the nuclear talks "alive."
Kang said she was "sorry" for the delay because many had seen Pompeo's visit as a possible booster to get stalled negotiations on the track.

Some fear the delay could weaken the role of President Moon Jae-in, who is regarded as a "hidden force and driver" to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. Moon is scheduled to hold his third meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang next month.

Seoul is pushing forward with its "engagement" policy toward Pyongyang; providing assistance in humanitarian inter-Korean projects and pushing Washington on the need to ease international sanctions imposed on the North.

Political analysts say Moon needs "big momentum" in his relations with Pyongyang because of a drop in approval ratings due to growing public discontent about rising youth unemployment, a slowing economy and controversy about the government's ambitious "income-driven growth" strategy.

While U.S. President Donald Trump blamed China's lack of support for negotiations and for the deepening trade friction with Beijing as the main reasons for the trip delay, the situation involving all aspects of nuclear disarmament negotiations were getting more difficult, analysts said.

"When putting a priority on the South Korea-U.S. relations, the implementation of business cooperation agreements such as expanding inter-Korean businesses through the two Koreas summit and establishing an inter-Korean liaison office might be affected," Shin Bum-cheol, a senior fellow at the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies was quoted as saying in local media.

Some analysts said that relations with the North could worsen if Washington used its relations with China as leverage, because it would take some time to resolve the trade war between China and the U.S.

"I think it is going to turn worse. I think the U.S. needs to start to get serious about a regional strategy including having meetings with Chinese, not that I think that China has caused some problems to this, I think China wants us," Christopher Hill, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, was quoted as telling Voice of America (VOA). "I think there needs to be much more coordination."

Cheong Wa Dae makes no secret of its eagerness to continue inter-Korean business projects already in the pipeline.

"As inter-Korean relations have played the role of accelerator and mediator for North-U.S. relations up to the present, they will also do so in the future," a senior Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters.
He said a plan to resume an inter-Korean liaison office in the North Korean city of Gaeseong would go ahead as planned.