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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump have dinner during their Hanoi summit at the Metropole Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel on Feb. 27. Seated on right are acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney

North Korea alluded indirectly to Washington’s need to replace its representatives in negotiations with Pyongyang while raising serious objections to recent hardline statements about the North from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House National Security Advisor John Bolton.

“[E]ven in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the US, I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but [another] person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us,” Kwon Jong-gun, director general of the Department of American Affairs in the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was reported as saying on Apr. 18 by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

In a reply to questions from a KCNA reporter, Kwon said, “[W]henever Pompeo pokes his nose in, the talks go wrong without any results even from the point close to success. I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled.”

The remarks carried the message that North Korea would like to see another person besides Pompeo serving as the US’ representative in bilateral negotiations. At the same time, the fact that Pyongyang avoided a more “official” approach such as a statement attributed to a Foreign Ministry spokesperson or one of its own representatives in US talks such as Workers’ Party of Korea Vice Chairman Kim Yong-chol or First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui – along with Kwon’s presentation of the view as his own rather than that of the “Republic” – suggests it is still too early to view the remarks as an official call for Pompeo’s replacement. At the same time, some negative effects on North Korea-US negotiations and the political situation on the Korean Peninsula appear unavoidable if Pyongyang does make that demand official going ahead – as Pompeo is the official responsible for overall US foreign policy.

“This comes across strongly as a battle of words or a blinking contest where [Pyongyang] is sending the message that it won’t be pushed around after the increasingly hardline remarks from Pompeo and Bolton,” said a former senior South Korean official and veteran North Korea observer.

“The South Korean government needs to play a proactive role to ensure the ‘war of words’ doesn’t become increasingly harsh and escalate into an actual clash,” the former official advised.

In a Mar. 15 briefing of foreign diplomatic mission chiefs in Pyongyang regarding the second North Korea-US summit in Hanoi, Choe criticized Pompeo and Bolton for “creating an obstacle to constructive negotiation efforts between the two leaders with their existing feelings of antagonism and distrust.”

Commenting on the message contained in North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s “position toward the US” as expressed in an Apr. 12 policy speech before the Supreme People’s Assembly, Kwon explained, “The meaning is that the US should get rid of the root cause that pushed us into a nuclear state and obstacles on the way to denuclearization by its own hands.” The remarks signaled that Pyongyang wants Washington to make the first move – specifically by reversing its hostile policy approach toward the North before the end of the year.

At the same time, Kwon also said it was “fortunate” that “our Chairman [Kim Jong-un] is pleased to get on well with President Trump,” in a message seen as indicating Pyongyang’s preference for a “top-down” approach to negotiations.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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