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Different positions on denuclearization

A significant report was released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on the evening of May 8 about the results of an unannounced meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Dalian – the second such meeting in just 40 days – shortly before the North Korea-US summit.

During his meeting with Xi, Kim reportedly “talked about plan-related matters for analyzing and assessing trends around the Korean Peninsula, seizing strategic opportunities and strengthening tactical cooperation between North Korea and China.”

“Seizing strategic opportunities” presumably expresses Kim’s determination to bring his summit with US President Donald Trump to a successful conclusion, whatever that requires, while “plan-related matters” appears to mean that Kim and Xi discussed a detailed plan for negotiating and managing the situation prior to Xi’s meeting with Trump.

On May 9, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang said that Kim’s visit to China had been initiated by North Korea.

The KCNA did not disclose the exact nature of the “plan-related matters” discussed by Kim. But the coverage of the results of the meeting by Chinese state-run Xinhua News provides the outlines of Kim Jong-un’s desired solution.

First, Kim reconfirmed that “achieving the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is and has always been the manifest position of North Korea.” This affirms once again the promises to carry out complete denuclearization and to achieve a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula that were made in the North Korea-China summit at the end of March and in the Panmunjeom Declaration following the inter-Korean summit on Apr. 27.

The message is not to doubt the North’s commitment to denuclearization. “As long as related countries eliminate their security threats and hostile policies toward North Korea, the North has no reason to possess nuclear weapons, and denuclearization will be achievable,” Kim went on to emphasize.

This means that complete denuclearization is on the table and available to be swapped for a guarantee from the US for the regime’s security (that is, “eliminating security threats and hostile policies”). This is a message for hardliners in the US who say that North Korea must not be rewarded until it has completely dismantled its nuclear program.

After that, Kim laid out a plan that was more specific than before: “I hope that the mutual trust forged through dialogue between North Korea and the US will lead related countries to take gradual and simultaneous steps in a responsible manner through the full pursuit of a process for a political solution to issues on the Korean Peninsula and ultimately that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and lasting peace will be achieved.” First of all, “mutual trust forged through dialogue” points the way toward a road down which neither North Korea and the US have ever gone.

This indirectly emphasized that actions already taken by North Korea – including its suspension of testing of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), its public shutdown of the nuclear test site at Punggye Village, and the imminent release of Americans detained in the North – represent a good faith attempt by North Korea to build “mutual trust.”

As such, it is also an appeal for the US to stop parroting its claim that the North cannot be trusted.

The “step-by-step and simultaneous approach” represents the process for resolving the conflict between North Korea and the US that Kim has advocated since the North Korea-China summit at the end of March. This approach would be a simultaneous exchange of items of equivalent value.

While some critics say that North Korea is using “salami tactics” to drag things out by making small concessions to gain big rewards, an entirely different interpretation is possible. Former Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok said that “not only Trump but also Kim want to move forward with denuclearization on a compressed timeline,” while Kim Yeon-cheol, director of the Korea Institute for National Unification, said that this means that “if they want faster denuclearization, they’ll have to speed up their reciprocal measures.”

In relation to this, Kim suggested that North Korea’s denuclearization measures should coincide with the US’s measures to normalize relations as he called for the “full pursuit of a process for a political solution to issues on the Korean Peninsula.”

“This means that the nuclear issue could be resolved naturally if the nature of their relations changes. The important thing is changing the nature of their relations,” Kim Yeon-cheol said.

Another interpretation is that the phrase about a “process for a political solution” was crafted with the Six-Party Talks in mind.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter, and Lee Je-hun, editor in chief

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