South Korean President Moon Jae-in will likely seek to mediate a breakthrough in talks between the United States and North Korea when he visits Pyongyang for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a Seoul official said Sunday. 

The presidential aide highlighted the importance of Moon's role in advancing apparently stalled talks on the North's denuclearization following the cancellation of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to the North scheduled for this week.

"I believe President Moon's role has only become greater," the official from the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said when asked about any possible change to Moon's scheduled trip after US President Donald Trump on Friday abruptly called off Pompeo's visit.
 

Trump cited a lack of "sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

Moon is scheduled to visit North Korea next month for what would be his third bilateral summit with Kim. The trip was earlier expected to follow that of the top US diplomat.

"Objectively, (President Moon's) role as a facilitator and mediator to help expand the range of mutual understanding between the US and North Korea has become greater," the Cheong Wa Dae spokesman told reporters.

The spokesman added that the third Moon-Kim summit will be held as scheduled when asked.

The leaders of the two Koreas first met on the South Korean side of the border village Panmunjom on April 27. They met again in Panmunjom on May 26, only on the North Korean side of the small village that sits directly on the inter-Korean border and is only populated by troops from both Koreas and the United Nations Command in Korea. (Yonhap)