By Kim Young-jin
Washington’s envoy on North Korea will arrive here Sunday for talks with Seoul and Tokyo on how to handle the Stalinist state amid concerns it could carry out further provocative actions.
Glyn Davies, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea will later meet in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei amid reports that China is exerting pressure on Pyongyang not to follow its failed April 13 rocket launch with a nuclear test.
The trilateral talks, to be held Monday in Seoul, will also involve Davies’ South Korean counterpart Lim Sung-nam and Shinsuke Sugiyama, director general for Asian and Oceanian affairs at Japan’s foreign ministry.
In a statement, the State Department said the meeting was part of “an ongoing dialogue among all three countries to exchange views on a wide range of regional and global issues, including North Korea.”
Seoul is on the lookout for further provocations including a possible third nuclear test as analysts say the North needs to bolster military support for its new leader Kim Jong-un and save face after the failed launch.
Recent satellite imagery shows some preparations being made. Reports say Beijing is leaning heavily on Pyongyang not to follow through, fearing conflagrated tensions and border instability.
The talks will be watched for signs of how regional players will handle Pyongyang amid the widespread belief that it is intent on keeping its nuclear program. Satellite photographs have shown that construction has resumed on the North’s light-water reactor project at its main Yongbyon plant.
In February, Davies was involved in a U.S.-North deal under which Pyongyang agreed to shut down its uranium enrichment program at Yongbyon and other steps in exchange for food aid.
Experts say the Barack Obama administration viewed it as a test of North Korean intentions under new leader Kim. However, Pyongyang broke the deal weeks later with the launch, bringing the appetite in Washington for engaging the regime to a low point.
Tensions have been high since the launch, which was seen as a ballistic missile test and earned the North a U.N. Security Council presidential statement that expanded sanctions on the cash-strapped country. In 2006 and 2009, Pyongyang followed a U.N. censure for its rocket launches with nuclear tests.
North Korean has ratcheted up its vitriolic rhetoric against the Lee Myung-bak government, upset over what it called defamatory remarks during its celebrations last month for country founder Kim Il-sung, for which it carried out the expensive launch. The rocket, meant to put a satellite into orbit, broke into pieces shortly after liftoff.
After meetings in China through Wednesday Davies will stop in Tokyo for further consultations.