SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump held phone talks Tuesday night over the upcoming second summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Moon's office said.
Moon had a telephone conversation with Trump for about 35 minutes at 10 p.m. local time (1300 GMT), closely discussing ways to cooperate for the success of the second summit between the leaders of the DPRK and the United States, according to the presidential Blue House.
It was the first such phone talks in about five months between Moon and Trump.
During the phone conversation, Moon highly evaluated Trump's diplomatic efforts for peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Moon expressed his anticipation that the second DPRK-U.S. summit would be a crucial turning point in realizing the peninsula's complete denuclearization, the peace regime building on the peninsula and the development of the DPRK-U.S. relations, which Trump and Kim agreed to during their first summit last year.
Kim and Trump agreed to meet again in Hanoi, Vietnam on Feb. 27-28. The first Kim-Trump summit meeting was held in Singapore in June last year.
For the corresponding measures to encourage the DPRK to take denuclearization steps, Moon asked Trump to make use of South Korea's role as it can reduce the U.S. burden.
Moon said his country was ready to assume any role, if President Trump demands, ranging from the connection of railways and roads across the inter-Korean border to inter-Korean economic cooperation projects.
In his New Year's speech, the DPRK leader said he would work to build new relations with the United States, settle lasting peace on the peninsula and pursue the complete denuclearization on the condition that the United States takes corresponding measures.
Kim said he was willing to reopen the inter-Korean industrial park in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong and resume the suspended tour program to the DPRK's scenic resort of Mount Kumgang without any preconditions.
The Kaesong Industrial Complex and the Mount Kumgang tourist spot have been closed since 2016 and 2008 respectively.
