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| Then-national security adviser Chung Eui-yong, third from left, and then-National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon, second from left, hold a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Sept. 5, 2018, during their visit to Pyongyang as presidential envoys. A third summit between President Moon Jae-in and Kim took place about two weeks after their visit. Chung was sworn in as foreign minister, Tuesday, and Suh succeeded Chung as President Moon's national security adviser in July 2020. Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae |
By Do Je-hae
President Moon Jae-in has rehired Chung Eui-yong, his first national security adviser from May 2017 to July 2020, as minister of foreign affairs with the hope of resuscitating inter-Korean and U.S.-North Korea talks to bring new momentum for his peace process before the twilight of his presidency sets in later this year. It is Chung who met with former U.S. President Donald Trump in March 2018 and brokered the first summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore three months later.
Chung's surprise appointment last month as foreign minister, replacing Kang Kyung-wha who had served in the post since the beginning of the Moon administration in May 2017, came about six months after the appointment of former National Intelligence Service (NIS) head Suh Hoon as national security adviser in July 2020. Chung and Suh led the preparations for the series of summits between Moon and Kim in 2018, culminating in Moon's visit to Pyongyang in September that year. At the time Moon said that Kim had agreed to reciprocate the visit. Chung and Suh both visited Pyongyang twice that year ahead of the inter-Korean summits and met personally with Kim. Suh is a career veteran at the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and has devoted most of his career to dealing with North Korea affairs.
Moon's high expectations for Chung and Suh are well-known, but it is unknown whether Pyongyang has similar expectations for them. Some experts said that given their special expertise in talks with North Korea, Pyongyang could be hoping they will be able to mediate between North Korea and the U.S.
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| Presidential envoy Chung Eui-yong, left, talks to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during Chung's visit to Pyongyang, Sept. 5, 2018, ahead of the third summit between President Moon Jae-in and Kim in the North Korean capital, Sept. 18. Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae |
"During the past four years of the Moon administration, I have never seen North Korea say anything bad about Chung or Suh," Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told The Korea Times. "During the eighth Workers' Party of Korea congress, Kim talked about plans for the next five years domestically and internationally, and it seems that he wants to manage the situation on the Korean Peninsula in a stable manner. From this perspective, I believe North Korea will be looking to the new South Korean Foreign Minister Chung to play the role of a mediator or a facilitator for talks between Pyongyang and Washington."
But it remains to be seen whether the Chung-Suh team will be able to extract a similar level of interest for inter-Korean relations from Pyongyang, given that their role could be limited to helping North Korea with what it primarily wants from the U.S., according to other analysts.
"Pyongyang mainly wants progress on sanctions while the Biden administration sees denuclearization as North Korea's obligation," a North Korean studies professor told The Korea Times on the condition of anonymity. "North Korea will not expect Chung to be able to bridge this gap and broker a new round of U.S.-North Korea contacts, since the Biden team is set on critically reviewing the Trump administration's policy. While the Moon government does seem to recognize the crucial necessity of policy coordination with the key parties concerned, it is unclear how Chung can break the current deadlock in denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang."
The Hanoi summit in February 2019 between Trump and Kim broke down because both sides were unable to reach an agreement on the sanctions.
Even before taking office Tuesday, Chung Eui-yong has been making a series of remarks on North Korea policies, such as Kim's intention to denuclearize his country. Those comments triggered concerns about possible confrontation with the new U.S. administration which has launched a review of the diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang during the previous Trump administration.
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