NK-US high-level talks likely to be pushed back to December

Posted on : 2018-11-28 16:48 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Talks likely to occur after Pompeo and Trump attend G20 summit in Argentina on Nov. 29
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo holds a press conference at the US State Department in Washington
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo holds a press conference at the US State Department in Washington

It looks unlikely that the high-level talks between North Korea and the US will be held in November. It’s widely believed that this gridlock is due to the two sides’ conflicting demands. The US wants North Korea to take steps toward denuclearization, while North Korea wants the US to take corresponding measures such as easing sanctions.

High-level talks had been scheduled to take place on Nov. 8 between North Korean Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea and director of its United Front Department, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, but North Korea canceled those talks with just one day’s warning. Now a diplomatic source in Washington, DC, says that North Korea has apparently not responded to the US proposal to hold talks at the end of November. Since Pompeo is supposed to accompany US President Donald Trump to Argentina to attend the G20 summit on Nov. 29, it would appear that the high-level talks have been pushed back until December.

Various explanations are being offered about why North Korea didn’t agree to hold the high-level talks at the end of November. One of these is the North’s request for the US to ease sanctions that affect the public livelihood. “North Korea is apparently determined not to hold high-level talks with the US until the US promises, at least implicitly, to ease UN sanctions,” said a source in Washington who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Other analysts think that US demands on North Korea have set the threshold for the talks too high. “The US is holding to its demand that North Korea ship its ICBMs and 60% of its nuclear warheads that pose a threat to the continental US to another country within six to eight months as a condition for lifting sanctions as North Korea wants. The US has apparently been unable to reach a compromise with the North, which is strongly opposed to this demand,” said Cho Sung-ryul, senior research fellow for the Institute for National Security Strategy.

Another explanation is that North Korea has been unable to finalize the date of the talks because it’s tweaking its overseas strategy leading up to the “national harmony” event it holds every December.

At the present moment, however, both North Korea and the US still seem committed to dialogue. In the middle of this month, North Korea released from detention an American who had illegally entered the country, while the US announced that it would scale back its Foal Eagle exercises with South Korea and recognized South and North Korea’s joint railway survey as an exception to UN Security Council sanctions.

Furthermore, the US has repeatedly confirmed that the second North Korea-US summit will be held in January. Accordingly, the prevailing view in light of the bargaining style of Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is that a January summit is still possible as long as the preliminary deliberations about agenda, security and protocol take place by the middle of December.

“We’re not in a situation where dialogue is in jeopardy,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.

In order to overcome the impasse in North Korea-US negotiations under these circumstances, more people are speaking of the importance of South Korean President Moon Jae-in serving as a go-between in a potential summit with Trump that may take place on the sidelines of the G20 summit, which will be held from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“During the South Korea-US summit, President Moon needs to offer a compromise that would be acceptable to both North Korea and the US and convince President Trump to find a way out,” Cho emphasized.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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