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South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha meets with Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh at Singapore’s EXPO Convention and Exhibition Centre on Aug. 1 during the ASEAN Regional Forum. (Yonhap News)

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho is reportedly scheduled to arrive in Singapore early in the morning on Aug. 3 to attend an ASEAN Regional Forum foreign ministers’ meeting. Kim Chang-min, the director of the international organization bureau in North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, previously arrived in Singapore on Aug. 1.

The big question that has emerged concerning the summit is whether bilateral foreign minister meetings between South and North Korea, North Korea and the US, and North Korea and Japan will be taking place. South Korea, the US, and Japan are all hoping to have bilateral talks with North Korea during the forum to achieve progress on their own issues: discussing an end to the Korean War and implementation of the Apr. 27 Panmunjeom Declaration for South Korea, generating momentum for follow-up denuclearization talks and implementation of the June 12 Singapore Joint Declaration for the US, and finding a solution on the abductee issue for Japan.

This year’s ARF, the 25th to date, is the only regional multilateral security meeting where North Korea participates as a full member. For that reason, the multilateral forum has been used since North Korea joined in 2000 as a setting for dialogue by the countries involved in Northeast Asia issues – including South and North Korea as well as the US, China, Japan, and Russia. The first bilateral North Korea-US foreign ministers’ meeting in history – between Paek Nam-sun and Madeleine Albright – took place at the ninth forum in Bangkok in July 2000.

The US has also opened up the possibility of a meeting this time between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ri when the forum is held on Aug. 3–4 this year. Addressing the possibility during a regular press briefing on July 31, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert noted, “North Korea will be a participant at the ASEAN meetings.”

“I certainly can’t preclude any interaction taking place,” she said.

“But we have no meetings on the schedule; nothing is planned,” she added.

If a meeting does take place between Pompeo and Ri, it would also signify the establishment of a channel between the two sides’ foreign ministers beyond the current line between Pompeo and United Front Department director Kim Yong-chol.

With recent reports in the US press that evidence has been detected of North Korea producing new ICBMs in addition to nuclear material, the positive climate established with friendly measures like North Korea’s repatriation of US POW/MIA remains and partial dismantlement of its West Sea satellite launch site at Tongchang Village appears to be dissipating.

Indeed, a senior State Department official stressed that the ARF would be “a good opportunity to reiterate, from our perspective, [that] all UN member states are required to implement UN Security Council sanctions [against] North Korea.”

The message reads as a signal at the US plans to continue pressuring Pyongyang, while leaving open the possibility of high-level dialogue to achieve a breakthrough in denuclearization talks.

The question of whether inter-Korean foreign ministers’ talks will be held in Singapore is also drawing attention. Soon after arriving at Singapore’s Changi International Airport on the evening of July 31, South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs was asked by reporters whether a schedule had been set for talks with Ri.

“Nothing has been decided yet,” she responded.

By Kim Ji-eun in Singapore and Hwang Joon-bum in Washington, DC, staff reporters

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