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Kim Yong-nam

After North Korea said it would be willing to negotiate with the US after being recognized as a nuclear weapon state, the US State Department made clear that it will not engage in dialogue with North Korea for now. On Dec. 4, Voice of America (VOA) reported that the State Department had reconfirmed that North Korea freezing its nuclear program at the current level is not adequate. “At the present moment, we do not see any indications of North Korea being committed to or interested in credible talks for denuclearization,” said Katina Adams, a spokesperson for the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, on Dec. 3.

The US government was responding to a report in the Interfax news agency about Vitaly Pashin, a member of Russia’s State Duma who recently visited North Korea. On Dec. 1, Interfax quoted Pashin as saying that “Kim Yong-nam, President of the Presidium of North Korea’s Supreme People's Assembly, told me that the North was prepared to sit at the negotiating table. The condition that North Korea offered for dialogue is recognition as a nuclear weapon state.” The message delivered by Pashin, who met Kim on Nov. 30, is notable since it came just one day after North Korea test launched its new ICBM, the Hwasong-15, on Nov. 29. Now that the North has declared the completion of its “state nuclear force,” some experts think it is revving up an initiative for dialogue.

But Adams flatly declared that the US would not recognize North Korea as a nuclear weapon state and said that the North must be prepared to come to the negotiating table with a plan for halting and reversing its nuclear weapon program. VOA also reported that Adams was critical of Russia for backing up North Korean claims.

Adams declined to specifically address the maritime shipping interdiction measures mentioned by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Nov. 28, only saying that the US continued to look for all available options to strengthen its comprehensive campaign of pressure against the North.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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