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The pairing of North Korean State Affairs Commission Special Representative for US Affairs Kim Hyok-chol and US State Department Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun appears poised to determine the success or failure of the upcoming second North Korea-US summit in Hanoi on Feb. 27–28. How did this duo emerge as the top-level window and the focus of so much intense attention? Clues can be found in three photographs.

Photograph 1 On Dec. 24 of last year, US President Donald Trump posted a photograph on Twitter with a message reading, “Christmas Eve briefing with my team working on North Korea.” In it, Biegun can be seen standing next to Trump, who is seated at his desk in the Oval Office. Crucially, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Biegun’s superior in terms of rank, is absent. With the photograph, Trump is sending a clear message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un – namely that Biegun is a figure empowered to report directly to Trump without going through Pompeo.

Photograph 2 On Jan. 18, Trump can be seen seated on one side of his Oval Office desk with Pompeo and Biegun opposite him sitting alongside North Korea’s delegation for the second North Korea-US summit. Shared by the White House, the picture shows the previously little-known Kim Hyok-chol, who has since become a focus of press attention. Workers’ Party of Korea Vice Chairman Kim Yong-chol introduced Kim Hyok-chol – Biegun’s new counterpart in negotiations – as “State Affairs Commission Special Representative for US Affairs.” Importantly, both special representatives, Kim and Biegun, were seen together listening to Trump speaking about his commitment and vision.

Photograph 3 Kim Jong-un can be seen in his office at the headquarters of the WPK Central Committee. The meeting to report on the outcome of the US visit and receive additional guidelines from Kim is being attended by Kim Hyok-chol in addition to Kim Yong-chol. Published by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the exceptional image sends another clear message from Kim Jong-un, namely that Kim Hyok-chol is a “friend” capable of reporting directly to him.

Taken together, the three photographs show that the Kim Hyok-chol/Stephen Biegun pairing is a collaboration of sorts, designed personally by Kim Jong-un and Trump for the sake of the second summit’s success. The duo represents a proxy channel under the two leaders’ direct control. A former senior official familiar with the situation explained, “The Kim Hyok-chol/Stephen Biegun negotiation pairing is a new method devised by the North Korean and US leaders to make up for the drawbacks of the ‘top-down approach,’ which drew a lot of attacks at the time of the first summit.”

The same former official described it as “a move to address two issues simultaneously, namely the cumulative damage to the two sides’ trust in the high-level talks channel between Kim Yong-chol and Pompeo and the lack of authority and bureaucratic access with the working-level channel between Sung Kim and Choe Son-hui.” This also explains the assessment on Feb. 12 from a current senior administration official, who said the Kim Hyok-chol/Biegun pairing was “at a different level” from working-level negotiation counterparts Sung Kim and Choe Son-hui, who undertook preparations for the first summit.

The problems the North Korean and US leaders are seeking to surmount with the Kim Hyok-chol/Biegun pairing are twofold. On one hand, the measure is meant to make up for a lack of working-level negotiations under the top-down approach. At the same time, it also serves as a safeguard to avoid the “red tape trap” exemplified in the longstanding diplomatic saying that “the devil is in the details.”

The Kim/Biegun duo boasts three characteristics. First, both are newcomers who have never previously assumed leading roles in North Korea-US negotiations. Their selection reads as showing the two leaders’ commitment to breaking out of the old patterns of antagonism from the past seven decades. Second, the negotiation window is directly linked to the top leaders on either side. The full negotiating authority invested in Biegun is attested to by Trump’s Dec. 24 photograph; Kim Hyok-chol’s relative autonomy and ability to bypass Kim Yong-chol is suggested by his title as State Affairs Commission Special Representative for US Affairs. The State Affairs Commission serves as a de facto secretariat for Kim Jong-un. Third, both Kim Hyok-chol and Biegun have met the other side’s leader and personally confirmed his commitment and vision, which will make it relatively easy for them to avoid mutual distrust and misunderstandings during the negotiating process. Kim met Trump on Jan. 18, while Biegun was present during Pompeo’s meeting with Kim Jong-un during his fourth North Korea visit on Oct. 7 of last year.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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