Reviving multilateral negotiations emerge as alternative to breaking deadlock on North Korea Posted : 2021-02-18 09:16 Updated : 2021-02-21 17:44 President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Joe Biden talked on the phone earlier this month and discussed Korean Peninsula issues. Korea Times file By Do Je-hae During the previous U.S. administration under Donald Trump, talks on North Korea's denuclearization revolved primarily around the U.S. and North Korea. President Moon Jae-in has also put priority on mediating U.S.-North Korea talks, but the two summits between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un did not lead to fundamental progress on denuclearization. The lack of results during the Trump administration on North Korea and the urgency from Seoul to quickly resume peace diplomacy have resulted in renewed attention to the type of multilateral negotiating framework that was seen during in the late 1990s, such as the four-party talks with representatives from the two Koreas, the U.S. and China. Six rounds of negotiations were held in 1997 and 1998.