US calls for meeting with NK in South

U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun, second from right, speaks as his South Korean counterpart Lee Do-hoon, right, listens during a media briefing at the foreign ministry in Seoul, Monday. AP-Yonhap

By Kim Yoo-chul, Jhoo Dong-chan

As the end-of-year deadline set by North Korea on the denuclearization talks is approaching, U.S. special envoy on North Korea Stephen Biegun called for a meeting with North Korea. Pyongyang has threatened to seek a “new way” if Washington doesn't drop its economic sanctions and pressure.

“Let me speak directly to our counterparts in North Korea. It is time for us to do our jobs. Let's get this done. We are here, and you know how to reach us,” Biegun said in a news conference after holding a meeting with his official South Korean counterpart Lee Do-hoon at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul, Monday.

Biegun, who arrived in Seoul, Sunday evening, leaves Tuesday afternoon for a meeting with Japanese officials on North Korean denuclearization.

Cheong Wa Dae sources told The Korea Times that U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials are working to facilitate a possible meeting between Biegun and North Korean First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son-hui. If the Biegun-Choe meeting materializes, it's expected the U.S. official will deliver U.S. President Donald Trump's handwritten message for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the senior North Korean diplomat.

Regarding any specific updates over Washington's possible action plan if the year-end “deadline” passes, the senior U.S. government official said: “The United States does not have a deadline. We have a goal.”

At the conference, the envoy stressed Washington will engage with its counterparts. “As I told United Nations Security Council members, last week, there are creative ways and steps to reach a balanced agreement that meets arrangements of both sides. I remain confident that all of this is possible. The U.S. cannot do it alone.”

But the State Department official didn't elaborate as to what was meant by “creative ways and steps.” Since the very beginning of the denuclearization dialogue with the United States, North Korea has been consistent in getting a wider range of sanctions relief before presenting its comprehensive denuclearization plans. Despite several in-person meetings between the leaders of the United States and North Korea, the United States and South Korea and the two Koreas, sanctions are still remain in place.

On Sunday, the North's official media said it had successfully conducted another test at a satellite launch site aimed at “restraining and overpowering the U.S. nuclear threat.” This is a second such test in a week. Seoul's spy agency and defense ministry are concerned that such tests were aimed at testing engines for mid- to long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

Biegun was expecting more such tests to come. “We are fully aware of the strong potential for North Korea to conduct a major provocation in the days ahead. To say the least, such an action will be the most unhelpful in achieving lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula. It doesn't have to be this way. It is not yet too late.”

“Chances aren't high North Korea will show up at the negotiating table unless Washington guarantees to make detailed and clear conciliatory measures instead of a brief meeting only for meeting's sake,” said Kim Dong-yub, a professor at Kyungnam University in Seoul.

Washington and Pyongyang have recently reached a nuclear deadlock. Trump and Kim held talks in Singapore in June 2018 and Vietnam in February this year to discuss the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. They also held “impromptu” talks at the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas in June this year.

But dialogues have stalled since then. Recent working-level talks between nuclear negotiators between Washington and Pyongyang held in Stockholm, Sweden, were broken off.

The U.S. envoy on North Korea later visited Cheong Wa Dae and told President Moon Jae-in about “all necessary details” to keep the denuclearization dialogue alive.

“President Moon appreciated Biegun's continued efforts to help the South Korean government bring a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Cheong Wa Dae vice spokesperson Han Jung-woo said in a statement.