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Andrew Kim, former head of the CIA’s Korea Mission Center, speaks at a virtual seminar hosted Tuesday by the Washington Times Foundation. (screen capture)

Andrew Kim, former head of the CIA’s Korea Mission Center, said that the US would probably not want the leaders of South Korea, North Korea and China to hold a summit during the Beijing Winter Olympics set to be held in February 2022. Kim played a key role in initiating the Korean Peninsula peace process in 2018.

“Having Kim Jong-un travel to Beijing during the Olympics, and then President Moon travels there [at the] same time, having Xi Jinping brokering some kind of a meeting [between the] three of them — that’s the last thing the US would like to see,” Kim said in a webinar hosted by the Washington Times Foundation on Tuesday.

Andrew Kim served as the first head of the CIA Korea Mission Center, which was newly established early in the presidency of Donald Trump. Kim played a key role behind the scenes in talks between North Korea and the US leading up to their first summit in Singapore in June 2018.

Notably, Kim accompanied Mike Pompeo on four trips to North Korea and aided communication between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and American officials. Pompeo was director of the CIA during the first trip to North Korea and Secretary of State during the final three.

Kim’s remarks on Tuesday indicate that the South Korean government’s plan to use the Beijing Olympics as an opportunity to resume inter-Korean dialogue and the Korean Peninsula peace process won’t be viewed positively by the Biden administration. His remarks also suggest that the US won’t welcome Xi Jinping’s help mediating peace on the Korean Peninsula, given the fierce strategic rivalry that is currently playing out between the US and China.

Kim described North Korea’s recent military actions as “low-key,” rather than “a full cycle of [. . .] provocation towards us.” Kim said, “That means they still [. . .] hope to continue to have some kind of negotiations in the future with us.”

Kim also said that North Korea is likely to focus on South Korean domestic politics for the next few months because it believes it has some influence there.

While Kim acknowledged that he doesn’t know exactly what the North Koreans want, he suggested that they would like an action-for-action approach and some credit for their self-imposed moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and ICBMs. That is, North Korea wants a “concrete roadmap” that will outline the steps North Korea can take toward denuclearization and the concessions that the US would provide in response.

“I heard this many times from North Korean counterparts that [the] US side hasn’t really given them credit for what they have done,” Kim said, referring to the moratorium that has been in place since late 2017.

“They are probably waiting for some kind of [. . .] official statement that we’re ready to sit down [at the negotiating table] without any conditions,” Kim added.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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