hankyoreh

Blue House correspondent)

By Park Byong-su, staff reporter

The Blue House belatedly announced that President Park Geun-hye and US Secretary of State John Kerry agreed on the need to hold meaningful dialogue as part of the six-party talks in order to end North Korea’s vicious cycle of provocations and reward. Park met with Kerry in Brunei on Oct. 10 during her participation in the ASEAN related summit

On Oct. 12, the Blue House issued a late press release detailing the outcome of the summit.

“In President Park’s meeting with Secretary Kerry, the two assessed the significance and the current status of the comprehensive strategic alliance between the two countries, which is now in its 60th year,” the press release said.

“They also deliberated important issues affecting the two countries, including North Korea and its nuclear weapons program.”

The press release also referred to Park’s meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, which took place on the same day.

“Park and Li resolved to clearly implement the supplementary measures to Park’s June visit to China in order to further upgrade relations between the two countries. They also agreed to pursue the second phase of negotiations for signing a free trade agreement between South Korea and China,” the press release said.

“The two leaders shared their opinions about the recent situation on the Korean Peninsula and agreed to strengthen mutual communication and cooperation in order to maintain peace and stability and to resolve the issue of North Korean nuclear weapons under the principle of not tolerating a nuclear North Korea.”

At first, the Blue House had remained tightlipped about Park’s meetings with Kerry and Li, saying that she had agreed not to disclose what had been discussed.

But when Kerry shared what he and Park had talked about with foreign reporters that evening, critics asked why the Blue House was the only party not disclosing the content of the discussion. The Blue House seems to have had this negative public sentiment in mind when it issued the press release, albeit belatedly.

Meanwhile, on Oct. 13, North Korea’s National Defense Commission called for the US to end its attempts to isolate and crush the North through military exercises and various sanctions.

In a statement in the name of its spokesperson, the commission responded to Kerry’s remarks about US willingness to sign a non-aggression pact with North Korea, dismissing it as “another prime example of American impudence and cunning. They promise friendly relations, but once after we have been stripped of our defenses.”

“The US needs to fully understand what denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula means,” the Korea Central News Agency quoted the statement as saying. “The US must completely abandon all of the measures designed to isolate and crush us.”

On Oct. 3, Kerry said that the US was ready to take part in dialogue and was “prepared to sign a non-aggression agreement, providing North Korea decides to denuclearize and to engage in legitimate negotiations to achieve that end.”

The comments came in a press conference held in Tokyo after the two-plus-two talks with the foreign and defense ministers of the US and Japan.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]