Ex-US six-party talks representative working at USFK

By Yi Whan-woo

Sydney Seiler

Sydney Seiler, a former U.S. special envoy for the six-party talks, has been working with the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) since May, according to diplomatic and military officials here, Wednesday.

They said Seiler has been serving as an assistant chief of staff for intelligence (J2) at the USFK headquarters in Yongsan, central Seoul.

His mission is to collect, summarize and analyze security information concerning the Korean Peninsula, such as North Korea’s military threats, and report it to the USFK command and to the Republic of Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command.

“I’ve been told Seiler has been analyzing intelligence at the USFK since May,” a South Korean military official said on condition of anonymity.

The official said there have been wild speculations over what led Seiler to take his new job, given that he is in now in a lower-level position than he was in the past.

Seiler, a career intelligence official, was the chief U.S. negotiator with the six-party talks aimed at Pyongyang’s denuclearization from September 2014 to August 2015.

He was also the director for Korea on the White House’s National Security Council (NSC) from May 2011 to August 2014.

Some South Korean military sources speculated that Seiler’s assignment reflects the grave nature of North Korea’s military aggression.

“His new job had usually been taken by a lieutenant colonel or a person at the equivalent level but they were believed to be not that skillful,” a source said.

“His assignment is seen as a sign of the Obama administration putting weight on security on the peninsula in the wake of North Korea’s advancement in nuclear capabilities such as the test-firing of an intermediate-range ballistic missile in June.

“The White House may have thought that there’s no one better than Seiler to analyze details concerning North Korea’s military program.”