Loose lips sink ships — and reveal that the two Korean leaders mainly discussed nukes, the US, and President Trump during their historic powwow last week, according to a report.
Several news outlets hired lip-readers to learn what North Korean despot Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in were talking about, just out of earshot of the media, the Washington Post reported.
“It was difficult to understand the whole conversation, but fragmentary keywords like ‘nuclear weapons facility,’ ‘Trump,’ ‘United States’ and ‘United Nations’ emerged,” said a presenter on the Japanese NTV show “Sukkiri,” which hired a South Korean lip-reading expert.
The experts cautioned that it was tough to gauge the leaders’ mouthings from a distance and at an angle as they chatted Friday while they strolled on a footbridge in the demilitarized zone.
Moon uttered the words “nuclear facilities” and “Trump,” while Kim spoke about “the United States” and “the United Nations,” according to the report.
Atsuhito Isozaki, a North Korea expert at Japan’s Keio University, said Kim appeared to be mostly listening — ostensibly to glean from Moon how the US might approach his expected summit with Trump.
Three lip-readers employed by the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo said Moon led the conversation, beginning by saying: “Let’s not keep our relations cut off, let’s talk more and move in a positive direction.”
According to the experts, Kim said: “The North Korea-US summit must yield positive results and I want to take things step by step to eliminate any problems.”
Kim also appeared to be asking Moon for his take on Trump’s intentions. Moon responded by making large hand gestures, according to Chosun Ilbo.
One of the lip-readers also said the two leaders appeared to have discussed Washington’s suspicions about Pyongyang’s willingness to scrap its nuclear weapons program.
South Korean officials declined to confirm the findings to the Chosun Ilbo, although a spokesman did deny the men talked about shuttering nuke test sites during their chat.
They also talked a bit about their personal lives, according to South Korea’s Channel A.
“Father looked at me and told me to marry that woman, so I trusted him,” Kim told Moon, talking about his wife, singer Ri Sol Ju, the Washington Post reported.
Kim became the first North Korean leader to cross into the South when he walked over the military demarcation line and met Moon in the truce village of Panmunjom.