US holds key to ending Korean War
By Kim Yoo-chul
South Korea is taking cautious steps toward signing a treaty to formally end the Korean War, with North Korea, the United States and possibly China as Washington appears to be linking Pyongyang's denuclearization to signing it.
“It seems unlikely that a joint declaration to officially end the Korean War will materialize sometime soon. The South wants to see quick progress. But the United States, which holds the key, wants the North to specify a detailed timetable for dismantling its nuclear weapons,” said Bong Young-shik, a North Korean expert at Seoul's Yonsei University.
On Monday, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said the third summit between the two Koreas will be held in Pyongyang as planned, though he didn't elaborate.
“The South wants the North to accelerate efforts for the denuclearization process. In return, the United States needs to show its willingness to take the North's announcements, sincerely,” said Kim.
President Moon has no options but to push his engagement policy no matter how hard it is as the policy has the majority backing from Koreans. More South Koreans hold a positive view of President Moon for having put the country in the “driver's seat” of the peninsula's issues.
“Relations between the United States and North Korea remain unpredictable. Future rising tensions are still a distinct possibility,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul.
The spokesman Kim said talks to establish a joint liaison office in the North Korean joint industrial complex of Gaeseong are still underway as key issues such as the opening date of the office and its operational format haven't been addressed “properly.”
“The South is talking about this issue with the North on various aspects. We didn't discuss specific steps with the North. I want you to wait for a while,” the presidential spokesman said in a media briefing. The office was closed two years ago following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test.
The establishment of the office is in sync with the President Moon Jae-in's well-known “engagement strategy” toward North Korea after the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un apparently expressed his willingness to explore engagement during an earlier summit with Moon.
South Korea is stepping further to use diplomacy and dialogue to explore ways for economic assistance for the North in order to facilitate its reclusive partner opening up to the international community. But Washington is putting much pressure for faster progress of the North's denuclearization.
Unlike the South's hope to improve inter-Korean relations with backup plans, the United Sates still has lots of questions on what denuclearization means and how it would be achieved.
In an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” (early Monday, local time), the White House National Security Adviser John Bolton said, “There's no one in this administration that is starry-eyed about the idea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's regime will completely rid itself of nuclear weapons capability. Still, the point may well come when Trump concludes Kim isn't acting in good faith.”
Bolton's comments came after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged other nations to continue the ongoing economic sanctions on North Korea and called out Russia and China for violating United Nations Security Council resolutions against the North.
The North was angered, claiming that the U.S. was demanding too much without providing any “substantial things” in return and didn't accept a request for a formal meeting by the South's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha in the ASEAN Regional Forum held in Singapore, last week.