Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Ruling party bets on thaw as Pyongyang signals potential ‘big deal’ with US
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Jie-won, center, arrives with his aides at the Seoul Central District Court Wednesday for a trial hearing on charges of attempting to cover up a 2020 incident where a civil servant was killed by North Korean soldiers after falling from a ship on the West Sea. Yonhap
By Anna J. Park
S. Korea’s spy agency says Washington and Pyongyang could resume talks in March
Following the death of Kim Yong-nam, former president of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, members of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) are calling for a condolence delegation to be sent to Pyongyang — a gesture some hope could help ease the long freeze in inter-Korean relations.
The idea aligns with what the National Intelligence Service (NIS) has described as Pyongyang’s "strategic timing," with the agency believing that North Korea may be testing the potential for a "big deal" with Washington early next year. Even so, experts on North Korea remain doubtful that such an outcome is likely.
Park Jie-won, a five-term DPK lawmaker who served as chief of staff to former President Kim Dae-jung and played a pivotal role in arranging the first inter-Korean summit on June 15, 2000, has publicly offered to visit Pyongyang as a special envoy to pay his respects. In a Facebook post and a radio interview earlier this week, Park expressed condolences over Kim’s death and volunteered to lead the delegation.
“I have already spoken with Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and asked the NIS director to consider sending a special envoy,” Park said, stressing that he had met the late Kim more than 10 times.
Park noted precedents for such exchanges, citing how a North Korean delegation visited Seoul to attend Kim Dae-jung’s funeral in 2009, and how the late Lee Hee-ho, Kim’s widow, later traveled to Pyongyang to offer condolences for Kim Jong-il’s death.
“I sincerely hope our government will allow me to visit the North as a special envoy,” Park said.
He also recalled his earlier trips to North Korea — in 2014 to receive a funeral wreath sent for the fifth anniversary of former President Kim Dae-jung’s death, and later to convey condolences for the third anniversary of Kim Jong-il’s death.
Another DPK lawmaker, Youn Kun-young, a former senior presidential aide under former President Moon Jae-in, also voiced support.
“In human relationships, sharing condolences can mark a turning point, and the same is true for the two Koreas,” Youn wrote on Facebook. “Even if dialogue is difficult, expressing sympathy for Kim’s passing is the right thing to do. It could help rekindle the flame of peace on the Korean Peninsula.”
Youn added that if government action is politically sensitive, a civilian-level condolence delegation could still be arranged.
National Intelligence Service Director Lee Jong-seok attends a parliamentary audit of the intel agency conducted by the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee at NIS headquarters in southern Seoul, Tuesday. Joint Press Corps
Experts remain skeptical
Meanwhile, during a closed-door parliamentary audit on Tuesday, the NIS reported that Kim Jong-un remains open to dialogue with the U.S. and that next March could be a “turning point” for potential U.S.–North Korea talks. Although a meeting between Kim and U.S. officials did not occur on the sidelines of the recent Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju, the NIS said it had detected indications of North Korea preparing for dialogue behind the scenes.
However, Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, expressed doubts over both the NIS’ assessment and Park Jie-won’s proposal, calling them “outdated” perspectives rooted in an old understanding of North Korea.
“Both the intelligence report and Park’s suggestion reflect a 2018-era mindset that fails to grasp how much North Korea’s strategy has evolved. The regime is no longer seeking engagement on the same terms as before," Hong told The Korea Times, Wednesday.
“The North Korean regime’s strategy has shifted. Unless Washington sends a clear signal, Pyongyang has little reason to engage, especially if it solidifies its hardline stance through constitutional revisions at its upcoming party congress early next year," he added.
Hong said it was unlikely that developments would unfold in North Korea’s favor between now and March, making the prospect of talks in that period improbable. He added that the intelligence agency’s assessment appeared to be little more than speculation.