South Korean President Lee Jae Myung proposed on Wednesday a freeze in the North’s nuclear programme in exchange for “compensation or some form of return” to Pyongyang.
“Just stopping at the current level — no additional production of nuclear weapons, no transfer of nuclear materials abroad, and no further development of ICBMs — would already be a gain,” Lee told journalists in Shanghai following days of meetings with top Chinese officials.
“If that stage is achieved, then in the medium term we can move toward gradual reduction. And in the long term, we must not give up the goal of a nuclear‑free Korean Peninsula,” he added.
