Second US-N. Korea summit
By Tong Kim
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Watching North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's recent visit to China, following his New Year address and U.S. President Donald Trump's favorable response to Kim's latest “great” letter, it is reasonable to expect that a second U.S.-North Korea summit appears imminent.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said at a New Year news conference in Seoul that Kim's latest meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping will soon be followed by his second meeting with Trump. Like Xi, who reportedly told Kim that the North and the U.S. should meet halfway to find a breakthrough to the current deadlock in nuclear talks, Moon suggested bolder action by Pyongyang and reciprocal action by Washington.
Both parties know what the other side wants. The U.S. demands concrete action on denuclearization beyond Kim's commitment, and the North demands an easing of sanctions before it takes a further step. Absent mutual trust, neither side is willing to blink.
On Jan. 6, Trump said at a cabinet meeting that the U.S. was having “a very good dialogue” with North Korea and that a second meeting with Kim will be set up “in the not too distant future.” He also said there would have been “a nice, big fat war” in Asia with North Korea if he had not been elected.
As Trump says both he and Kim want to meet again to resolve the North Korean issue that Trump says has been around for 80 years. Kim has not been critical of the American president since their meeting in Singapore in June 2018, despite his obvious disappointment with a lack of a “corresponding measures” from Washington.
Kim's visit to Beijing and his letter to Trump seem to have helped erase concerns that Pyongyang was backing away from denuclearization amid the diplomatic stalemate, Kim's failure to pay a return visit to the South, and his reaction to mounting pressure from the sanctions imposed by the U.N. and the U.S.
Some portrayed Kim's meeting with Xi, a fourth in ten months, as a strategic planning session for the second summit between the North and the U.S. Some suspected its aim was to influence the U.S.- China trade talks, the timing of which coincided with Kim's visit. This was not true. The trade talks appear to have made some positive progress to the satisfaction of both Beijing and Washington.
Through his New Year address, Kim reaffirmed his commitment to the June 12 Singapore agreement, declaring his intent to produce an outcome from a second summit with Trump that will be welcomed by the international community. Kim conveyed essentially the same message to Xi.
Kim's vague statement, “…if the United States… attempts to unilaterally enforce something upon us and persists in imposing sanctions and pressure against our republic, we may be compelled to find a new way for defending the sovereignty of the country and … for achieving peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula.” deserves comment.
The latitude of the meaning of “a new way” includes going back to the “byungjin policy” of nuclear and economic development, ending dialogue with Washington and relying on China's support, an arduous march to self-reliance and survival, or a dangerous confrontation with the U.S. in a final showdown.
Perhaps, it could have been a tactic to raise negotiating leverage for the upcoming second summit. Or it could have reflected Kim's frustration with the U.S. insistence on the sanctions, which Trump also says will be in full force and effect, until major progress is made in denuclearization.
According to the North Korean Central News Agency, Kim told Xi that the North keeps “the goal of the denuclearization of the peninsula, and sincerely seeks a negotiated peaceful solution.” But Kim brought up “the difficulties and concerns arising in the course of the improvement of the U.S.-North Korea relations and the negotiations for denuclearization.”
In response, Xi “fully agreed with the principled issues suggested by North Korea … and its reasonable points of concern should be resolved properly, adding it is a correct choice for the parties concerned to prioritize and reasonably tackle them.”
It is interesting to note that the two Koreas, China and the United States are all focusing on their economic issues. Kim spent 70 percent of his New Year speech on the economy; Moon is shifting his focus from peace to the economy; and Xi on resolving trade disputes with Trump. The priority of a state is to feed its people.
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 Corean-American Studies.