The Yonsei University professor insisted a deal reached under Donald Trump's government, which he described as the most "hawkish" American administration, will likely be acceptable to a later president.

Moon Chung-in, a special security advisor to Moon, agreed.

"If President Trump makes a real deal with North Korea, there is very little chance it will be rebuked by a succeeding administration," he told the meeting held at the main press center for the Moon-Kim summit. Moon currently serves as a special advisor to the South Korean president for unification, foreign affairs and national security.

The former Yonsei University professor said reasons behind the North Korean leader's push for dialogue with South Korea and the US may be twofold.

"The rationale behind his decision is that North Korea wants to be a normal state," he told the forum, which has been called a super-preview of Kim's upcoming summits with Moon and the US president.

Trump has agreed to meet with Kim after the third inter-Korean summit, possibly in May or early June. The Moon-Kim summit will be held Friday at the border truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas.

Moon said the other reason for the seemingly sudden change in the reclusive North Korean leader's stance toward Seoul and Washington may be its new-found confidence as a result of declaring itself a nuclear state.

He insisted, however, that the North will have to give up either its nuclear weapons or economic prosperity.

"Chairman Kim Jong-un cannot have both economic development and nuclear weapons. He must sacrifice nuclear weapons," Moon offered as a reason why he believe the North may genuinely be willing to give up its nuclear weapons this time around.

"I think the most important study point is Chairman Kim's remarks to our special envoy Chung Eui-yong. He made very clear that if there is no military threat, North Korea has no reason to have nuclear weapons."

Chung is President Moon's top security advisor who traveled to Pyongyang in early March to help arrange the upcoming South-North and North-US summits.

Moon, the special advisor, claimed what Kim wanted as a security guarantee was actual proof of improved relations between his country and the US.

"What they really want is a feeling of safety coming from the US, manifested in real economic transactions," he said.

He asserted Trump may see such conditions as acceptable, as long as the North completely, verifiably and irreversibly dismantles its nuclear capabilities in a very short period of time or before the remainder of his first four-year term, which expires in two and a half years.

(Yonhap)