South Korean president urges Trump to help secure peace with North Korea

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has urged US President Donald Trump to help achieve peace with North Korea, saying he hopes Trump can play a similar role to the one he did in helping end the conflict in the Middle East, Lee's office said on Wednesday.

The United States and Iran are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding on Friday aimed at ending their war, prompting speculation that the Trump administration could next focus on North Korea.

Trump added to the speculation shortly after announcing the Iran agreement by posting on social media a photograph of himself with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their 2018 summit in Singapore, without any accompanying caption.

According to South Korea's presidential office, Trump asked Lee about the state of inter-Korean relations during a conversation on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France.

During the exchange, Lee requested that Trump “take the lead in achieving a peaceful resolution to the North Korean issue, just as he has resolved the conflict in the Middle East,” the statement said.

Trump reportedly responded by expressing his willingness to work toward resolving the North Korean issue.

Lee has adopted a more conciliatory approach toward Pyongyang than his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, who pursued a tougher stance. However, North Korea has dismissed Lee's outreach efforts, officially describing South Korea as its “most hostile” enemy and repeatedly asserting that its status as a nuclear power is irreversible.

Experts remain sceptical about the prospects of renewed talks between Trump and Kim.

“From North Korea's perspective, there is virtually no reason to meet the United States,” Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.

Kim has instead focused on strengthening ties with neighbouring powers, including providing troops and weapons to support Russia's war in Ukraine.

He also recently hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in Pyongyang, shortly after Xi held consecutive summits in Beijing with Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Notably, official statements from both North Korea and China made no mention of denuclearisation, a silence that experts interpret as a sign of Beijing's tacit acceptance of North Korea's nuclear status.