A breakthrough on N. Korea
By Tong Kim
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In a stunning development last week, U.S. President Donald Trump accepted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s invitation to a summit and Trump will meet with him by May, with place and time to be determined later.
National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong reportedly delivered a letter with Kim Jong-un’s invitation to the White House. Chung told reporters Kim was “eager to meet with Trump as soon as possible.”
The topic for a historic U.S.-DPRK summit will be about “permanent denuclearization,” without which no durable peace is possible. In 2000 former U.S. President Bill Clinton seriously considered visiting Pyongyang to meet Kim Jong-il, then leader of the North. But that did not happen as time ran out.
Since the president of the United States has decided to meet with the North Korean leader, concerns and caution about directly engaging the North will not change the momentum for dialogue. Until the announcement of Trump’s bold decision, most Korea watchers cautioned against the mistakes of the past in negotiating with the North, which Trump himself pledged not to repeat.
Potential candidates of the venue of the summit may be neutral ground such as Panmunjeom, or a third country such as Switzerland, or the United Nations in New York, or even in South Korea. It is not likely the U.S. will accept Pyongyang, and Kim is not asking Trump to come there either.
Earlier last week, Kim Jong-un dictated to a visiting South Korean presidential delegation a surprising five-point statement in a clear departure from his known approach to the United States. He seemed to be reviving the negotiating premises his father held.
His statement included his intent to discuss “denuclearization and normalization frankly if treated normally.” He also recalled the death-bed wish of his grandfather for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, which his father used as a compelling reason for denuclearization.
In further details, Kim Jong-un specified: No reason to keep nuclear weapons if the security of its system is guaranteed and military threats are removed; no nuclear or missile tests while engaging in dialogue; no objection to the scheduled resumption of joint military drills on their normal scale; and no attack on the South by nuclear or conventional weapons.
Many observers struggle to explain the motivation behind Pyongyang’s abrupt turnaround on nuclear weapons. Until two weeks ago, the North insisted its nuclear weapons would never be up for a deal. Its constitution and its party convention stipulate the DPRK as “a nuclear state that shall pursue ‘byungjin’ policy” for parallel development of its nuclear arsenal and its economy.
Kim Jong-un’s circumvention of the legal restraints is easier to explain than the real question of why he so suddenly pivoted to what appears to be an all-out diplomatic offensive. He is the only one who can disregard the laws of his country, and of course in the name of a greater interest to the state. He can change the laws later if necessary.
Trump and his surrogates claim Kim was surrendering to the impact of Trump’s tough pressure, backed up by threats of war, against the North as well as a madman’s tweets. Even some mainstream media in the U.S. report on the possible positive impact of Trump’s approach. The South Korean President and his security adviser Chung give credit to Trump for his tough policy for bringing the North to the table. Trump likes compliments. Diplomacy of flattery seems to work on him.
There is some evidence sanctions are starting to bite the North, perhaps making Kim realize he has no exit from the corner into which he drove himself by advancing a reckless nuclear program that now can threaten the U.S. homeland. However, this remarkable breakthrough all started with progress in inter-Korean dialogue leading up to the Winter Olympics and an exchange of envoys thereafter.
It is not important to decide who deserves credit for Kim’s positive strategic decision. Kim has not explained the rationale for his new strategy or a roadmap to denuclearization. And nobody really knows exactly why he is doing this.
What is important is to prepare a good plan for realistic steps to denuclearization. Moon and Trump already agreed, and rightly so, to maintain the pressure campaign until concrete measures are taken on the denuclearization process. Thank God, a breathtaking peace process is beginning on the Korean Peninsula.
Tong Kim (tong.kim8@yahoo.com) is a Washington correspondent and columnist for The Korea Times. He is also a fellow at the Institute of Korean-American Studies.