South Korea’s Lee urges sanctions relief in exchange for North Korean nuclear freeze

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is urging Washington to ease sanctions on North Korea in exchange for freezing its nuclear and missile programs, an approach one North Korea expert called the “least bad option” for slowing the expansion of Pyongyang’s arsenal.

Lee said in an interview published Monday in the New York Times that there is “significant value in a trade-off between sanctions” and efforts to halt the North’s development of additional nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

He argued that sanctions are not “particularly effective” and that insisting on denuclearization before making progress “guarantees that nothing will be accomplished,” according to the Times.

Lee also said President Donald Trump is the only leader capable of bringing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un back to negotiations.

Trump told reporters last month that Kim had responded “very positively” to his overtures for dialogue. Trump said Aug. 19 that he planned to meet Kim later this year.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Trump was seeking a face-to-face meeting with Kim during an anticipated trip to APEC — the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Shenzhen, China.

Lee warned that allowing North Korea’s weapons programs to continue unchecked could result in a substantially larger arsenal and eventually increase the risk of Pyongyang exporting nuclear weapons.

“Our estimates suggest that North Korea is now capable of producing, or may already be producing, an additional 10 to 20 nuclear weapons each year,” he told the Times. “Once it believes it has accumulated enough nuclear weapons and missiles to guarantee its survival, it will be tempted to export them to make money.”

Lee warned: “That will be a truly dangerous moment.”

The White House did not immediately respond to an after-hours request for comment Tuesday in Washington.

Lee’s proposal reflects the reality that persuading Pyongyang to surrender its nuclear arsenal is increasingly unlikely, said Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul who specializes in North Korean affairs.

“North Koreans have always been determined to remain nuclear,” he told Stars and Stripes by phone Wednesday. “Their experience of decades of negotiations has demonstrated that no amount of pressure, no amount of compensation or reward will persuade them to surrender their nuclear weapons.”

The “least bad option,” Lankov said, is to accept that North Korea is unlikely to denuclearize and “try to freeze the situation in its current shape.”

Lankov cautioned, however, that securing such an agreement would be difficult.

“North Koreans are likely to demand a lot in exchange for the agreement to freeze their program,” he said.

North Korea’s improving economy and support from China and Russia mean Pyongyang would probably demand significantly more in exchange for concessions than it did during negotiations with Washington seven years ago, Lankov said.

Trump and Kim met in Hanoi in 2019 for their second summit. North Korea offered to dismantle its Yongbyon nuclear complex in exchange for sanctions relief, but the two sides failed to reach an agreement.

Lee, who took office in June 2025, has advocated for improving relations with North Korea and reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Pyongyang, however, has given no public indication that it is prepared to resume negotiations with either Seoul or Washington. It has continued to test weapons and fortify its defenses along the inter-Korean border.