Rise of Moon has shifted tide on Korean Peninsula 

Moon in many ways is the opposite of Park. He is a liberal who, as a student activist, was imprisoned by Park Chung-hee, the father of Park Geun-hye. A former human rights lawyer, he has declared his desire to improve relations with both North Korea and China, while insisting that the alliance with the United States will remain the anchor of Seoul’s diplomacy and security.
Elected on Tuesday last week and sworn in the next day, Moon immediately began to tackle issues that had piled up over previous months.
Ties with China were top of the list. During a 40-minute phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the new Korean leader said he would send two special envoys to Beijing for talks, one on the North Korean nuclear issue and another to discuss the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system, which has been deployed to defend South Korea from a possible North Korean attack. China, however, is vociferously opposed, saying the system threatens its own national security.
Besides Xi, Moon also spoke with President Donald Trump, who promised a White House invitation soon. Moon assured Trump that the Korean-American alliance would continue to be at the heart of South Korea’s diplomacy and security, and Trump complimented South Korea as “not just a good ally but a great ally”.
Other phone calls were held with Premier Shinzo Abe of Japan, to discuss the “comfort women” accord agreed by Park’s administration for Tokyo to pay US$8.9 million as compensation for forcing Koreans into sexual slavery during World War II. While Abe called for follow-through on the agreement, Moon said that most South Koreans don’t accept the accord. This longstanding thorn in the bilateral relationship is likely to continue to prove intractable.
Other phone conversations were held with the leaders of Australia, Britain, Russia, India and Germany.
The one regional player with whom Moon did not talk was Kim Jong-un, his North Korean counterpart. But Moon was North Korea’s favoured candidate during the campaign and the new president, in his inaugural address, said that he would be willing to go to Pyongyang for talks “under the right circumstances”, echoing what Trump had said 10 days prior.
Nonetheless, North Korea pressed ahead with its nuclear and missile-development programme, holding another missile test on Sunday – one that experts said could be a new type of weapon. The test triggered the first meeting of Moon’s national security council. Moon responded by saying that, while South Korea remained open to dialogue, it would only be possible “when North Korea shows a change in attitude”.
Yet there has already been a change in emphasis over the Korean crisis. Trump has shifted his stance away from military threats in the last couple of weeks, even saying he would be “honoured” to meet Kim “under the right circumstances”.
On Sunday senior North Korean diplomat Choe Son-hui reciprocated by announcing her country would be willing to hold talks with the US “if conditions are mature”.
The stage is now set for South Korea to play an active role in the region and, hopefully, set conditions under which a dialogue, if not negotiations, can be conducted. Already, tension has been lowered as the North has refrained following through on its threat to conduct a sixth nuclear test – although the missile tests continue almost on a weekly basis.
Moon is likely to hold out to Kim the possibility of a future unified Korean peninsula. That won’t happen anytime soon, but the possibility of unification is something that both Pyongyang and Seoul are unwilling to preclude. 
Events are moving at a rapid pace. Only a week ago, it would have been unimaginable for representatives of the US, North Korea and South Korea to all sit in the same room. And yet, over the weekend, all three countries, together with dozens of others, gathered together in Beijing for the China-sponsored Belt and Road Forum. Change has come to South Korea and the dynamics in the Korean Peninsula are  shifting fast.