hankyoreh

The US State Department’s special envoy to the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue sent a strong message on Washington’s willingness to resume dialogue with Pyongyang.

Now it remains to be seen whether a way out lies in store for the long deadlock in North Korea-US relations and the six-party talks.

“The US has never once talked about denuclearization being a precondition for resuming talks,” special envoy Sydney Seiler told the Hankyoreh on Oct. 29. Seiler is in South Korea this week to attend the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Forum.

“It looks like there may have been some misunderstanding in the process of our explaining the conditions for more sincere and credible talks,” Seiler explained.

Seiler also said denuclearization was “a process that starts with halting the nuclear program and continues on to disablement, dismantling, and complete abandonment.”

“That’s the process we want to carry out now,” he added.

According to Seiler, this method could allow North Korea to build trust with other countries.

“North Korea honors its promise by starting the denuclearization process, and then the other countries honor their promises,” he explained.

Seiler’s remarks suggest Washington could negotiate a lower barrier to resuming the talks, rather than demanding preliminary denuclearization steps at least on par with those of its Feb. 29, 2012 Agreement with Washington, as South Korea, the US, and Japan have been insisting on as conditions for restarting the discussions.

Pyongyang has insisted on an unconditional reopening of the six-party talks, which Seoul, Washington, and Tokyo have countered by demanding the terms agreed upon by North Korea and the US in Beijing in Feb. 2012: a moratorium on nuclear and missile testing, a halt to all nuclear programs, including uranium enrichment, and allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency to carry out monitoring.

“The reason we’re talking about suitable conditions for the six-party talks is because we need to make the six-party talks successful,” Seiler explained.

“What we’re doing is building trust on the principle of ‘action for action,’ and using that momentum so we can establish common interests for both sides,” he said.

The message seems to be that while some conditions are necessary for the talks to begin again, one possibility might be an “action for action” scenario where North Korea is rewarded for taking steps to denuclearize, as opposed to a unilateral demand for it to honor its obligations.

Seiler went on to urge Pyongyang to respond positively.

“Things like whether the conditions [for resuming the talks] are too great or too difficult are secondary issues in a way,” he said. “The more important questions are whether North Korea is prepared to come out again, and whether it‘s ready to start making the effort to initiate the denuclearization process like in 2008.”

Seiler also said Washington was “firmly committed” to a diplomatic resolution of the nuclear issue.

“This is a very important point,” he said.

“We are very strongly committed to establishing some kind of negotiated solution, and we intend to make continue efforts to get this process in motion and move it forward,” he added.

Seiler went on to say the US “welcomes” the release last week of Jeffrey Fowle, an American who had been detained in North Korea.

“We’ve made it clear [to Pyongyang] that are looking forward to the release of the other two people,” he added, referring to detainees Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller.

“There are many issues to be resolved between our two countries, and we want to keep talking to North Korea about denuclearization, about the detainee issue, and about whatever expectations North Korea wants to communicate,” Seiler said.

Sydney Seiler has spent more than three decades specializing in North Korea intelligence analysis and negotiations for the US Central Intelligence Agency and White House. He has been working as the US State Department’s special envoy to the six-party talks since September.

By Yi Yong-in and Choi Hyun-june, staff reporters

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