South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is urging Washington to ease sanctions on North Korea in exchange for an agreement that Pyongyang would freeze its weapons programs, the politician said in an interview with The New York Times.

“Breaking with decades of policy on North Korea, the president of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, is now urging the United States to ease sanctions on Pyongyang in exchange for an agreement that it freeze its weapons programs,” The New York Times reported on Monday.

However unpalatable such a bargain may seem, the world has no realistic alternative, Lee argued.

Still, he believes that US President Donald Trump is the only leader capable of drawing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un back to the negotiating table.

“I believe there is significant value in a trade-off between sanctions—which are not particularly effective anyway—and a stop to the development of additional nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology,” the South Korean president said.

Once a freeze is secured, Lee envisions building trust through reciprocal incentives and concessions to eventually convince the North to reduce its nuclear arsenal, The New York Times notes.

The ultimate goal is to create conditions in which Pyongyang feels sufficiently protected to survive without nuclear weapons, the newspaper adds. The ultimate goal would be to create an environment where Pyongyang feels secure enough to survive without nuclear weapons.