Moon to vote early ahead of next week's elections

SEOUL, June 4 (Yonhap) -- President Moon Jae-in will cast his vote early for next week's local elections as part of efforts to boost voter turnout, his spokesman said Monday.

Spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said Moon will cast his ballot on Friday, five days before the June 13 election.

Kim said that early voting turnout is closely linked to total turnout.

He said, however, the early voting has nothing to do with Moon's possible trip to Singapore to join U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Trump and Kim are scheduled to hold a summit in the Southeast Asian nation on June 12.

The possibility of Moon traveling to Singapore gained traction after Trump said last week, following a meeting with senior North Korean official Kim Yong-chol, that his summit with the North's leader could include formally ending the Korean War.

Should the U.S. and the North agree to use the summit to declare an end to the 1950-53 conflict, Moon would have to travel to Singapore to join them. The Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the divided peninsula still technically at war.

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