US envoy for North Korea says ‘diplomacy still very much alive’ with Pyongyang despite summit collapse
- But Stephen Biegun said North Korea must show it is fully committed to elimination of its nuclear weapons
- Andrea Thompson, the US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said she believed Trump and Kim would meet again in a third summit
The US envoy for North Korea said on Monday that “diplomacy is still very much alive” with the hermit kingdom despite the collapse of last month’s summit between the two countries’ leaders, while another US official said she believed they would meet again in a third summit.
But US Special Representative to North Korea Stephen Biegun said at a Washington nuclear conference that gaps remain between the sides and North Korea must show it is fully committed to elimination of its nuclear weapons.
“We are not going to do denuclearisation incrementally, and that is the position [on] which the US government has a complete unity,” Biegun told the Carnegie Nuclear Conference, repeating the Trump administration’s message that it would accept nothing less than “the final, fully-verified denuclearisation of North Korea”.
“The foundation of US policy is denuclearisation,” he said. “And until we can get to some point, or we have the same traction on that issue, then we have another issue which makes difficult for us to move forward.”
“We have been closely engaged with North Koreans, especially over the past couple of months. It’s certainly our expectations we will be able to continue that close engagement in order to advance the shared goals of the two leaders as expressed in Singapore summit.”
Biegun urged North Korea to honour past promises to eliminate its nuclear weapons.
His remarks came after Andrea Thompson, the US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, had told conference attendees she believed a third summit between the two leaders would take place, although she said no date has been settled.
The leaders’ second meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February collapsed over North Korea’s demands for relief from crippling US and United Nations sanctions and the US’ insistence on the complete removal of nuclear weapons from North Korea.
The leaders met for the first time in Singapore in June last year, emerging with a vaguely worded statement on denuclearisation.
Beigun repeated that the US would “not lift the sanctions until North Korea has completed the denuclearisation process”.
Thompson said it was “incredibly important” that sanctions remained in place until North Korea eliminated its nuclear weapons.
“We are not letting the foot off the gas,” she said. “We are going to continue with the pressure campaign.”
“We are going to continue to hold those sanctions and we are going to continue to work with the team abroad to make sure those stay in place,” she said.
US think tanks and South Korean intelligence agencies said last week that Pyongyang had already begun reassembling a major rocket launch site. Biegun said the US was monitoring North Korea’s activities closely, but ultimately, he admitted, “we don’t know what Kim Jong-un will decide to do”.
The parties remained far apart even though the top-level meetings created “space for us at the working level to test ideas and close the gaps”, Biegun said.
“I know the president has talked about his willingness [to continue meeting with Kim, but] we don’t have anything to announce today.”
He also said the confidence building is important sector and the US is open to set up a permanent liaison office in Pyongyang and sent inspectors to North Korea.
Both leaders talked about setting up a liaison office during the Hanoi summit, but the prospects were largely dampened with the high-stakes talks ended abruptly.
