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.
North Korea may have declined offer for special envoy
By Lee Min-hyung
President Moon Jae-in
By Lee Min-hyung
Speculation is growing that North Korea may have refused an offer from President Moon Jae-in to send a special envoy to prepare for a possible summit.
This comes after President Moon Jae-in offered Monday to hold an inter-Korean summit without commenting on plans to send a delegation to arrange topics and schedule for what could be Moon’s fourth meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
This was somewhat different from the summits last year, as Cheong Wa Dae at the time unveiled its plans to dispatch special envoys to the North before announcing that Moon would hold a summit with Kim.
The two Koreas held three summits last year, and the first and the third ones took place after the South dispatched special delegations to the North.
“It is high time we make preparations and carry out an inter-Korean summit,” President Moon said in a meeting with presidential aides, Monday. He did not make any detailed comments on any plans to send a pre-summit delegation.
Last year, Moon made public that he would hold a summit with Kim only after the presidential house dispatched a special envoy to Pyongyang and fine-tuned a detailed agenda with the North.
The special envoy plays a crucial role in determining the success of the summit, as they hold in-depth discussions to decide timelines and an agenda in detail ahead of the meeting.
Possible candidates for the South Korean envoy include National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon and National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong, as both figures visited Pyongyang last year. They hold the top authority in handling intelligence work on North Korea.
With the presidential house remaining quiet over any schedules to dispatch an envoy, rumors are circulating that North Korea is playing politics by declining to accept one, in a show of discontent over the South’s mediating role in dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.
Unlike last year, North Korea has in recent months shown signs of stopping its reconciliatory gestures to the South by stepping up criticism of Seoul for failing to properly mediate the nuclear talks between the U.S. and the North.
In a recent speech, the young dictator complained about Moon.
“South Korea should stop pretending to be a mediator or facilitator (in nuclear talks between the U.S. and the North) and become a party advocating the interest of the Korean people,” Kim said Thursday.
The remark came as part of Kim’s apparent discontent about the ongoing deadlock in his denuclearization negotiation with U.S. President Donald Trump in the wake of the breakdown of the Hanoi summit in February.
With both sides showing little sign of compromising on timeline and methods of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, the North has in recent weeks ramped up pressure on the South to stop walking on eggshells around the U.S. and be more active in improving inter-Korean relations.