Kim Hyun-chong, deputy head of the presidential office's security council responds to questions from reporters upon his arrival from Washington D.C., April 5, after having consultations with U.S. government officials and politicians ahead of the upcoming summit between President Moon Jae-in and President Donald Trump at White House, April 11. Yonhap

By Kim Yoo-chul

President Moon Jae-in plans to pitch his ambitious "sanctions easing" agenda when he meets U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, April 11, sources at Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said Sunday.

The South Korean leader, a self-proclaimed "facilitator" of denuclearization talks between the U.S. and North Korea, is expected to stress why "greater engagement" matters in addressing a simmering disagreement between Washington and Seoul over a possible easing of some of the economic sanctions on Pyongyang, they said.

"The failure of the Hanoi summit was still an opportunity to get a deeper understanding of what Pyongyang and Washington want to make progress in that respect. Moon plans to embrace the risk of personal diplomacy by asking Trump to grant reciprocal measures after Seoul and Washington laid out the necessary groundwork via working-level discussions," one Cheong Wa Dae official said.

Despite the breakdown of the Hanoi summit, Trump said his personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was "good" before canceling additional "large-scale" U.S. Treasury sanctions on the North to keep the denuclearization talks on track.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gestures while speaking during a news conference at the U.S. State Department in Washington, April 4, 2019. AP-Yonhap

Moon first tried to push his sanctions-easing agenda at the beginning of the nuclear disarmament talks, however, this fell flat as he failed to get the backing of other countries having greater stakes in the process. His government then created a body to coordinate diversified approaches with Washington and other key allies with regard to the North Korea nuclear issue.

As to which sanctions would be addressed and the level of easing, the official said, "It's likely President Moon may raise the lessening sanctions that affect the lives of the North Korean people."