US calls on Seoul to slow North Korea policy
Presidential Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok, right, shakes hands with U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun before the start of their in-person meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, late Monday. Yonhap
By Kim Yoo-chul
By Kim Yoo-chul
Washington appears to have asked Seoul to backtrack “a bit” on President Moon Jae-in's headlong approach emphasizing dialogue and engagement with North Korea, a government official said Tuesday.
U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun met with Presidential Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok, late Monday, at the presidential office and the two had “intensive talks” on various issues including steps to achieve the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the North, Cheong Wa Dae said.
But what made the meeting “something special” is that the U.S. envoy requested the in-person session with Im, which many political analysts in Seoul interpreted as “very rare” because National Security Office chief (NSO) Chung Eui-yong has been playing a central role in the denuclearization talks since the very beginning.
“A meeting between Biegun and chief negotiator for nuclear disarmament Chung had been scheduled at Cheong Wa Dae, late Monday, but Biegun wanted Im to join. As Im had plans Tuesday that couldn't be rearranged at the last minute, the U.S. envoy changed the meeting schedule with Chung. The NSO chief was notified of the decision,” a Cheong Wa Dae official said without elaborating further.
The reason the U.S. envoy pushed for the meeting was to deliver its message directly to the operatives behind the President's “sanctions-easing” pitch, a government official told The Korea Times by telephone.
“Biegun filed Washington's worries about Seoul's engagement-focused North Korean policies in a closed-door meeting with the presidential chief of staff as this strategy is carrying risk at a time of growing friction between Seoul and its top allies, which continue to maintain pressure on the North,” according to the official asking not to be named.
The United States is considerably more hawkish toward North Korea by saying no concessions are possible unless Pyongyang shows more of its plans to scrap its entire nuclear program.
Consensus by Washington pundits is that a lowering in tensions on the peninsula is due to President Donald Trump's readiness to adopt a risky and more aggressive policy focusing on sanctions and threats. The United States still thinks the maximum pressure-initiated approach will eventually and essentially force North Korea to unveil more detailed plans on denuclearization.
“Washington thinks presidential chief of staff Im is a hidden force and wants to ensure applying a phased policy toward North Korea is not pursued unless a new agenda is fixed in the upcoming Kim-Trump summit,” said Shin Bum-cheol, a senior fellow at the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
The situation on the peninsula has improved greatly since the beginning of the year with President Moon and Kim Jong-un having several meetings. A series of measures to ease border tensions are being applied and the President plans to ask the National Assembly to ratify the Panmunjeom Declaration in a speech on Nov. 1 to promote various inter-Korean projects that would incur hefty costs.
Moon used his recent nine-day visit to European capitals to win backing from France and the United Kingdom, which hold seats on the United Nations Security Council, for his sanctions-easing pitch. However, the attempts apparently fell flat because French leader Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May insisted the sanctions “must be maintained” until North Korea takes more concrete steps to completely dismantle its nuclear program.