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| U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference on the sidelines of the opening of the 74th United Nations General Assembly in New York, Wednesday. Democrats in the U.S. Congress announced they were beginning a formal impeachment inquiry after Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his possible presidential rival Joe Biden during a phone call. EPA-Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
With U.S. President Donald Trump facing an impeachment investigation, all eyes are on whether this political conundrum will have a negative impact on reviving the nuclear disarmament dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.
Earlier this week, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the start of an "official impeachment inquiry" into Trump amid a growing scandal concerning a phone call in which he pressured his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate his possible presidential rival Joe Biden
As of now, chances look slim that Trump will be actually impeached, but there are lingering concerns that he may now place a lower priority on the denuclearization talks to handle the controversy.
The political turmoil surrounding Trump comes at a critical juncture when Washington and Pyongyang are fine-tuning the details to resume their working-level talks ahead of another possible summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The U.S. leader has taken political advantage of his summits with Kim as a major diplomatic achievement, claiming he stopped the North from carrying out threatening military provocations by forming a close and personal relationship with him through their meetings.
Experts said Thursday it was too early to link the controversy with the planned resumption of the disarmament talks.
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"Trump does not have to play a direct and critical role in the upcoming resumption of their nuclear talks in consideration of their working-level nature," said Shin Beom-chul, a senior analyst at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
The two parties still need time to discuss details, such as a timeline and location, for a future summit between Trump and Kim, so the U.S. domestic political issue will not have any negative impact on the progress of the nuclear dialogue, according to Shin.
"On top of that, North Korea has little to do with the reasons behind the impeachment proceedings against Trump," he said. "If Washington and Pyongyang had been at the stage of fine-tuning their differences for a potential summit, the issue would have had a bad influence. But this is not the case at the moment."
The U.S. and the North are widely expected to restart their suspended denuclearization talks in the next few weeks. Such expectations come amid a series of signals from the North, which expressed its willingness to resume negotiations.
Park Won-gon, a professor at Handong Global University, also concurred that the Trump impeachment issue will have a limited impact on the talks.
"But one thing that is clear is that Trump will consider all the ramifications before signing a deal with the North," Park said. In the upcoming negotiations with the North, Trump will make politically based decisions ahead of the 2020 presidential reelection, according to the professor.
The South Korean government is also paying close attention to the talks, as their outcome will determine the future of inter-Korean relations. These have soured in recent months in the wake of the failure of the Hanoi summit between Trump and Kim in February.
On Thursday, a Seoul-based local newspaper reported that a working-level delegation from the U.S. visited Pyongyang last weekend for talks with their North Korean counterparts. Citing an unnamed source, the report also said U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun held talks with Kim Myong-gil, who heads the North's working-level nuclear delegation.
But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied the report, saying it was far from the truth.
"The U.S. has not informed the South of such an unofficial meeting between Biegun and the North Korean officials in the latter's capital," an official from the ministry explained.
