Jumpstart of nuclear talks

By Tong Kim

Some of the statements that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made to the South Korean delegation of envoys, headed by National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong, on Sept. 5 are significant enough to provide new momentum to restart the stalled denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington.

According to Chung, Kim Jong-un reaffirmed his commitment to denuclearization and his trust in President Trump. Kim also “hoped to achieve denuclearization and to end hostile relations by the end of President Trump's first term.” This is the first time Kim mentioned a target timeline.

This new time frame is longer than a year's period that John Bolton, national security adviser at the White House, had in mind, but probably acceptable to secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who has been warning that denuclearization will take a long time as there is a lot of work to do.

But, there is an important part missing that Kim did not mention: a list of the North's nuclear arsenal, including weapons and production facilities, which the U.S. has been demanding unsuccessfully from the beginning.

Trump, who has recently said his good relationship with Kim could change, tweeted to thank Kim Jong-un for “his unswerving faith in President Trump. We will get it done together.”

Kim also said that he had never spoken ill of Trump, while expressing his frustration with a lack of recognition by the international community of positive measures that the North has taken toward denuclearization, including the closing of its nuclear test sites and dismantling a missile launch site, which, Kim said, should prove that North Korea has given up further nuclear development.

Washington cancelled Pompeo's fourth visit to Pyongyang last month, after receiving a reportedly “hostile” letter from Kim Yong-chol, the North's top point man on the U.S. with a message that it would be futile for Pompeo to come to the North if he would not bring with him something new, something commensurate with what the North has done, especially on their demand for a declaration to end the war.

The North has complained that Trump had promised to declare an end to the war at the Singapore summit, but his staff is backing away from his promise. It has demanded U.S. measures to establish a new relationship and a durable peace regime on the peninsula in accordance with the Singapore agreement.

Perhaps conscious of pervasive concerns that an end-of-war declaration might entail, the North Korean leader said “ending the war will have nothing to do with the withdrawal of U.S. troops or weakening of the alliance between South Korea and the United States.” This statement signals that his priority is not troop withdrawal or driving a wedge between Seoul and Washington.

On the contrary, Kim maintains a continuing interest in improving relations with the South. He will meet with President Moon Jae-in Sept. 18-20 for their third summit in Pyongyang to discuss implementation of the Panmunjom declaration and to seek progress in denuclearization.

As Moon says, improved inter-Korean relations can play a positive role in the process of denuclearization. Until April this year, the North shunned the South from any discussion of the nuclear issue, insisting that the issue will have to be dealt only with the U.S., because the issue was the product of U.S. hostility.

Both the North and the U.S. now seem to recognize the South's positive role in promoting communication and understanding between them. Seoul claims that Trump entrusted President Moon as the “chief negotiator” on denuclearization. However, reconciling and narrowing their differences over the 79 years of hostility and bad experiences is not easy.

Seoul appears to be pursuing an exchange of an end-of-war declaration and a declaration of nuclear facilities (or even a timeline for such a declaration). In short, Seoul is operating on the notion of a phased and synchronized process to which the North is sticking and which Washington is not ready to accept.

We will learn more on how denuclearization may proceed, after Moon's third meeting with Kim Jong-un and Moon's meeting with Trump toward the end of this month in New York, during the U.N. General Assembly. Depending on how these two summits will turn out, a declaration to end the war is still possible within this year as agreed to in the Panmunjeom declaration, which will be only a beginning of the process of discussing a peace regime, which ideally should proceed in conjunction with denuclearization.

Tong Kim (tong.kim8@yahoo.com) is a Washington correspondent and columnist for The Korea Times. He is also a fellow at the Institute of Corean-American Studies.