Lee Min-hyung joined The Korea Times in 2014 and has worked as a journalist mainly in Korea’s finance, tech and automotive industry. He specializes in content creation, breaking news and in-depth analysis currently on transportation and mobility. You can reach him via mhlee@koreatimes.co.kr.
Nuclear big deal in the making in Pyongyang
By Lee Min-hyung
Steve Biegun and Kim Hyok-chol
By Lee Min-hyung
The United States and North Korea entered the second day of their pre-summit nuclear negotiations in Pyongyang, Thursday, but did not disclose any details over the working-level dialogue.
With the upcoming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un about three weeks away, both sides are ready to fine-tune the agenda for the second leadership meeting.
The U.S. delegation, led by the country's special nuclear envoy Steve Biegun, arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday for talks with his North Korean counterpart Kim Hyok-chol. It remains unknown for how long the talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will continue.
But it is likely the parties have already drafted the summit agenda, considering the timeline and location for the summit are fixed. Biegun and Kim Hyok-chol will instead focus on modifying the details of the agenda during their possibly days-long discussions.
No specific details have been unveiled, but both sides are expected to present a series of negotiating chips under the common goal of making a breakthrough in the now-stalled denuclearization talks.
“Expectations are that Washington and Pyongyang have already finished exchanging all their bargaining chips (for the second summit), but it still remains to be seen how they swap the cards,” said Kim Sang-ki, director of the unification policy division at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
In particular, all eyes are on what kind of cards the U.S. will play as part of a “corresponding step” in exchange for the North's actions for nuclear disarmament. This is because Pyongyang has in recent months called on Washington to take what the regime calls “trust-building” measures to move forward the rare momentum for peace talks.
In May, the North dismantled its Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the presence of outside observers, in what critics said was a move to express its firm willingness to fulfill its pledge for complete nuclear disarmament on the peninsula.
The U.S., however, is adopting a hardline stance on the regime, and wants the North to take more concrete and verifiable steps for denuclearization, such as the dismantlement of its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
Washington also urges Pyongyang to turn over a full list of its nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, which the North argues is an excessive demand at a time when the U.S. is not taking what the regime calls “reciprocal steps” for peace on the peninsula.
The steps include the suspension of annual military exercises conducted jointly by Seoul and Washington.
Other possible agenda items for the upcoming summit include the establishment of a liaison office between Washington and Pyongyang and a partial lifting of sanctions on the North.
With the two sides sticking to such contradictory stances, the dialogue momentum has shown no signs of improvement in the past few months after the historic meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un in June.
To vitalize the stalled dialogue momentum, the U.S. and the North have engaged in a series of subsequent working-level and high-level dialogues, which all ended up failing to generate tangible outcomes.
But starting this year, their momentum for dialogue began to revive, with both leaders exchanging bilateral willingness for the second summit to end the ongoing deadlock in denuclearization talks.
On Wednesday, Trump confirmed that his second meeting with Kim Jong-un will take place for two days from Feb. 27 in Vietnam. But the U.S. president declined to confirm other details, such as the summit agenda or a detailed schedule.