By Kim Bo-eun
North Korean officials believe the former six-party talks format will not help resolve the nuclear standoff, implying it is likely to depend more on direct talks with the United States over denuclearization, a state-run think tank chief said, Friday.
They also want South Korea to play the role of mediator he added
Jo Dong-ho, president of the Institute for National Security Strategy, said Pyongyang has shown a strong commitment for a summit with Washington. Last month he led South Korean members in a meeting in Helsinki, Finland, where public and private sector security experts and former officials from South and North Korea and the U.S. took part.
“In the meeting, a North Korean official said, 'The six-party talks are dead. They are over,'” Jo told reporters during a press conference in Seoul.
He added he was unable to recall which official made the remark. North Korea's Deputy Director-General for North American Affairs Choe Kang-il led the team from Pyongyang.
“It appears North Korea's strategy is no longer seeking a path based on six-party talks or China's mediation.”
Jo said North Korea seems to want to improve relations with the U.S., with the South Korean government playing a mediating role. “North Korean officials asked the South to make efforts for the Pyongyang-Washington summit to take place, and it was South Korea that arranged the summit by playing a mediator role.”
The North Korean officials made these remarks after President Donald Trump accepted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's offer for talks on denuclearization.
There are concerns that the meeting may fall through because there were no reports of developments in preparation for the summit. But Trump recently spoke out about it, stating the summit it will be held in May or June and that preparations were taking place.
As part of efforts in the role of “mediator,” South Korea's National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong visited Washington and met his new U.S. counterpart John Bolton to map out a plan for North Korea's denuclearization ahead of Pyongyang's summits with Seoul and Washington.
“Broad discussions took place on various ways to successfully host the two summits and to peacefully achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” he told reporters at Washington Dulles International Airport before returning to Seoul.
Regarding the mediator issue, a Cheong Wa Dae official also said South Korea has “its own means to resolve the issue of North Korea's denuclearization,” but did not elaborate further.
Surrounding the peninsula issue, a flurry of summit diplomacy is set to take place from April through June as the states involved in dealing with the Pyongyang nuclear issue share developments and seek a resolution.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet with Trump next week and an inter-Korean summit will be held on April 27. A summit between South Korea, Japan and China is set to take place in early May.
Russia and South Korea are also preparing for a meeting between their leaders in June.
Full-fledged preparations for the inter-Korean summit are also underway, with two weeks left to go. Working-level and high-level inter-Korean meetings are set to take place next week.