North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has sent an "urgent directive" to diplomats to "negotiate a peace treaty with the U.S.," Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported Wednesday.

Sources told the daily that Kim considers South Korean President Moon Jae-in's term in office a "golden opportunity" to sign the peace treaty. The paper said Kim sent the directive to the North's overseas diplomatic mission during the G20 Summit in Germany from July 7-8, apparently emboldened by the successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

"The Moon Jae-in administration is providing a golden opportunity for us. Before hostile forces cause a stir, we must realize our duty of reunification," it quoted the directive as saying.

The idea seems to be that Moon's desire for rapprochement offers North Korea a chance to drive a wedge between South Korea and the hardline Trump administration. That may be why the official Rodong Sinmun daily recently accused Moon of "succumbing" to the U.S. by maintaining sanctions against the North.

Seoul said it could not verify whether Kim had indeed sent the directive, but one government official said on condition of anonymity, "North Korea has demonstrated it has an ICBM capable of striking the U.S and could try to use the weapon as leverage to ease sanctions."

Meanwhile, the president's special security adviser, Moon Chung-in, admitted to Japan's Mainichi Shimbun that there is no room for South Korea as long as North Korea insists that the nuclear standoff involves only Pyongyang and Washington.

But Moon added that the South could "continue to exercise influence by recovering trust with North Korea" and "play a leading role in the resumption of stalled six-party talks."

