hankyoreh

US State Department Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun heads to his accommodations in Seoul on Feb. 8 after returning from his three-day visit to North Korea

US State Department Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun returned to Seoul on the evening of Feb. 8 following a three-day visit to North Korea. The two sides appear to have made some headway in bridging their differences over the three-day period, with the State Department announcing on Feb. 7 that Biegun was in discussions with North Korean State Affairs Commission Special Representative for US Affairs Kim Hyok-chol on complete denuclearization and the establishment of new bilateral relations and peace on the Korean Peninsula as part of working-level talks.

A US military transport aircraft departed Pyongyang with Biegun’s delegation on board, traveling a direct route over the West (Yellow) Sea before arriving around 6:30 pm that day at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. In all, Biegun spent over 55 hours in Pyongyang alone, taking into account his arrival time at 10 am on Feb. 6 and departure time at 5:30 pm on Feb. 8. The stay’s duration – the longest in Pyongyang for any US government figure paying a disclosed visit under the Donald Trump administration – may be taken as a sign of how densely packed the two sides’ discussions were.

A foreign affairs source reported that immediately upon arrival in Seoul, Biegun apparently went to the US Embassy to deliver a report on the Pyongyang working-level talks’ outcome. On the morning of Feb. 9, he was scheduled to visit South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha before meeting Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Lee Do-hoon to explain about the outcome of the talks. He is also expected to meet with Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Chief Kenji Kanasugi of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, who is visiting South Korea to meet with him. No separate plans for a Blue House visit were reported.

Multiple high-ranking South Korean government sources told the Hankyoreh that the three-day working-level discussions in Pyongyang “appear to have gone well” in terms of content. With reports that the discussions proceeded smoothly, this suggests the two sides may have bridged most of their differences over the main issue predicted to decide the outcome of the upcoming second North Korea-US summit, namely the corresponding US measures in response to North Korea’s dismantlement of its Yongbyon nuclear facilities and other denuclearization measures. Trump’s message calling for “bold practical measures” from both sides’ negotiating teams in connection with denuclearization suggests they may have focused on coordinating their “action-for-action” plans for after the second summit.

To begin with, they may have discussed the timeline and methods for international inspection teams inspecting the Tongchang Village engine testing site and Punggye Village nuclear testing site, which both sides have agreed is necessary. The US, which has previously demanded abandonment of North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs in addition to the dismantlement of plutonium and uranium enrichment facilities at and beyond Yongbyon, may also have agreed on beginning the denuclearization process with shutting down the Yongbyon facilities.

As corresponding measures go, the US may have hinted at a concrete pledge toward an end-of-war declaration and peace agreement, establishment of a liaison office, and some loosening of sanctions with the expansion of humanitarian aid and human and cultural interchanges. But with the two sides unlikely to have hammered out all of the details in one go, the likelihood of additional working-level talks appears high.

Observers also speculated the working-level talks may have produced a conclusion on the host city for the upcoming summit. The presence of some members of the US negotiating team on board a US transport aircraft returning to Osan Air Base from Pyongyang on the evening of Feb. 7 led some analysts to suggest they may have begun working-level preparations for selected locations. The US has reportedly favored Da Nang as a venue for security and other reasons, while North Korea is said to prefer Hanoi because Kim Jong-un will be visiting Vietnam as a special guest of the state.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter, and Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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