ANALYSIS Why is Pyongyang unresponsive to Biden administration?
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un delivers his closing remarks during the first short course for chief secretaries of city and county party committees of the country's ruling Workers Party of Korea, held March 6, in this photo released by the country's state-run Korean Central News Agency the following day. KCNA-Yonhap
By Jung Da-min
North Korea watchers said it is not yet the right time for North Korea to accept Washington's calls for talks, while U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has yet to draw up its North Korea policy.
According to a Reuters report, Saturday (local time), which cited a senior White House official, Washington has been reaching out to Pyongyang for behind-the-scenes diplomatic talks since mid-February but the reclusive regime has remained unresponsive.
The report came days before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will travel to Tokyo and Seoul for talks with their Japanese and South Korean counterparts, through which Washington is expected to draw up its North Korea policy.
Hong Min, a senior researcher at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification, said Washington's attempts for behind-the-scenes talks, if they had been made since mid-February per the Reuters report, would have been unwelcomed by Pyongyang in terms of timing.
“Just a month ago from mid-February, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared a relative response strategy against the United States at the 8th Congress of the country's ruling Workers' Party of Korea, saying Pyongyang would respond to Washington based on its new strength-against-strength and benevolence-against-benevolence principle,” Hong told The Korea Times.
“Pyongyang would not want to send a signal to Washington that it had been waiting desperately for Washington's outreach to the regime for such behind-the-scenes talks by accepting Washington's proposal, while publicly sending out a strong message to the Biden administration.”
Hong also said it was likely that Pyongyang would have guessed Washington was trying to manage North Korea risks including possible military provocations which had been seen in the past before and after elections of new U.S. presidents and there would be no benefits from such behind-the-scenes talks with the Biden administration, which has yet to draw up its North Korea policy.
Shin Beom-chul, the director of the Center for Diplomacy and Security at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said it could be that Pyongyang is giving a message to Washington that the Biden administration should first make a change in its earlier position to stick with “principles” when it comes to North Korea policy, and that Pyongyang would respond to Washington's outreach after the latter makes a concession by easing sanctions.
“North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is keeping his position of taking the bull by the horns when it comes to the regime's U.S. policy, which he declared during the 8th party congress. As the Biden administration has so far talked about principles when it comes to its North Korea policy, North Korea could be sending a message to the Biden administration that it would respond when Washington first presents a change in its earlier position,” Shin said.
Meanwhile, Blinken and Austin's trip to Japan and South Korea would provide “a key ingredient” to Washington's North Korea policy review, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a regular press briefing, Friday (local time).
Sung Kim, acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, also said on the same day during a phone press briefing ahead of the U.S. secretaries' trip to East Asia that Washington is expected to complete its ongoing review of North Korea policy in “the coming weeks.”