North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “still has the intention to denuclearize,” South Korea’s foreign minister nominee Chung Eui-yong said at his confirmation hearing on Friday.

“He is honoring the moratorium [on nuclear and long-range missile testing],” Chung said at the National Assembly in Seoul. He added that North Korea’s continued display of new weapons may be a strategy to sustain leverage in negotiations, appearing to imply that Kim Jong Un does not intend to close the door on diplomatic progress.

Chung, recalling his meeting with Kim in March 2018, described him as “a leader with an accurate perception