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Lee Do-hoon, South Korea’s special representative for Korea Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs, and US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun hold a working-group meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on May 10, 2019. (photo pool)

On July 6, a day ahead of US Deputy Secretary of State and Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun’s arrival in South Korea, a North Korean news outlet published an article expressing discontent over the South Korea-US working group.

In an article that day titled, “How long will they wear the chains of humiliation and subservience?” the North Korean online news site Choson Today noted “recently growing critical public opinion in South Korea attributing chief responsibility for the current deterioration in inter-Korean relations to the South Korea-US working group.”

The site went on to quote the positions of Democratic Party lawmakers, former unification ministers, and South Korean civic groups and media who have been critical of the South Korea-US working group. Describing the group as “shackling” improvements in South Korean relations, it called for “taking this opportunity to completely dismantle it.” The site also took aim at the South Korean government, insisting that it should “take center stage in pursuing inter-Korean relations” rather than continuing to take its cues from the US.

“It needs to establish an ‘inter-Korean working group’ [rather than a South Korea-US one] to resolve Korean Peninsula issues,” it urged.

Biegun, who is scheduled to visit South Korea from July 7 to 9, presided over the first South Korea-US working group meeting alongside his counterpart Lee Do-hoon, South Korea’s special representative for Korea Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs, during a previous visit in November 2018. The two have also held several senior-level discussions on the North Korean nuclear issue and working group meetings since then.

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

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