hankyoreh

US State Department Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun shakes hands with South Korean Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Lee Do-hoon at the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Aug. 21. (photo pool)

Stephen Biegun, the US State Department special representative for North Korea, arrived in South Korea for a visit on Aug. 20, the same day that combined command post exercises between the two sides were completed. Biegun was part of a US delegation that plans to meet with senior Blue House, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Unification officials over a three-day period to share views on Korean Peninsula issues including the swift resumption of working-level talks between Pyongyang and Washington. Observers are also watching to see whether North Korean and US working-level negotiation teams may end up meeting at Panmunjom or elsewhere during Biegun’s visit.

After arriving at South Korea’s Gimpo International Airport at 6 pm on Aug. 20, Biegun held deliberations with his counterpart, South Korean Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Lee Do-hoon, at 10:30 am on Aug. 21. Biegun is reportedly planning to meet with Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul later that afternoon, at 4 pm, and with Kim Hyun-chong, second deputy chief of South Korea’s National Security Office, the following morning.

During his preceding visit to Japan on Aug. 19-20, Biegun met his Japanese counterpart, Kenji Kanasugi, the director-general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After wrapping up his visit to South Korea on Aug. 22, he will reportedly be continuing on to China.

The deliberations between South Korea and the US will probably focus on the incentives that the US can give North Korea in their working-level negotiations, which are on the verge of being resumed. Those incentives would depend upon reaching an agreement about the agenda of those negotiations, namely the end state of denuclearization, and upon outlining a roadmap to denuclearization that begins with a freeze on the production of nuclear materials and weapons.

More specifically, US and South Korean officials could discuss what rewards the US is willing to offer if North Korea allows inspectors to visit its nuclear test site at Punggye Village and its missile engine test site at Tongchang Village — both of which sites Pyongyang claims to have destroyed — and if the North moves forward with shutting down its Yongbyon nuclear complex. There is talk that one of those rewards could be a partial relaxation of UN sanctions on North Korea, allowing the resumption of operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex and tourism to Mt. Kumgang.

Interest has also surged in the possibility of an unexpected meeting between the North Korean and US negotiators, including Biegun, at Panmunjom or another site. In an Aug. 10 tweet announcing that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had sent him a personal letter, US President Donald Trump said that Kim had “stated, very nicely, that he would like to meet and start negotiations as soon as the joint US/South Korea joint exercise[s] are over.”

An official from South Korea’s Foreign Ministry downplayed the chances of a North Korea-US meeting during Biegun’s visit to South Korea, noting that “no meetings have been scheduled.” But a high-ranking official in the government said that “North Korea-US working-level talks will take place soon.”

On Aug. 20, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for the resumption of North Korea-US negotiations while expressing concerns about North Korea’s missile test launches. During an interview with CBS on Aug. 20, Pompeo acknowledged that the North Koreans “have fired short-range ballistic missiles” and responded in the affirmative to the interviewer’s question about whether that concerned him. “I wish that they would not,” Pompeo said

“We hope Chairman Kim will come to the table and get a better outcome. It’ll be better for the North Korean people; it’ll be better for the world,” Pompeo emphasized.

“We haven’t gotten back to the table as quickly as we would have hoped, but we’ve been pretty clear all along: We know there’ll be bumps along the way.”

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

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