South Korea urges North to reactivate communication hotlines before any talks
- Seoul’s Unification Ministry welcomed a statement from Kim Yo-jong, the sister of Kim Jong-un, about North Korea being open to conditional talks
- Meanwhile, Britain has collected evidence of multiple ships apparently breaching UN sanctions which ban the sale of fuel to North Korea
The North might be seeking to extract concessions about two weeks after it raised tensions by carrying out its first missile tests in six months. North Korea has twice reached out to South Korea saying it is open to talks if conditions are met.
She did not elaborate on what specific steps she wants South Korea to take. But some experts say North Korea wants South Korea to play a role in winning relief from US-led sanctions, getting aid, or receiving other concessions such as international recognition as a nuclear weapons state.
On Sunday, South Korea’s Unification Ministry called Kim Yo-jong’s statement “meaningful”, saying the South has been consistently pushing to achieve denuclearisation and peace on the Korean peninsula through dialogue.
A ministry statement said that to hold talks on beginning steps toward reconciliation, suspended cross-border communication lines must be reactivated quickly to promote stable communications between the divided countries. It said Seoul hopes the two Koreas can resume talks on many pending issues.
North Korea says hope is alive for peace, summit with the South
The South Korean statement refers to a set of phone- and fax-like communication channels between the rivals, which have been largely dormant for more than a year. The two Koreas briefly resumed communications over the channels for about two weeks this summer, but North Korea later refused to exchange messages again after Seoul staged annual military drills with Washington.
Earlier this month, North Korea carried out tests of ballistic and cruise missiles in its first such launches since March, displaying an ability to attack South Korea and Japan, both key US allies. North Korea still maintains a moratorium on testing longer-range missiles capable of reaching the American homeland, a suggestion that it wants to keep alive the chances for future diplomacy with the US.
01:42
Made in North Korea: sanctions-hit textile factories focus on domestic athletes
Relations between the Koreas flourished in 2018, when Seoul helped arrange high-profile nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang, including a summit between Kim Jong-un and then-US president Donald Trump. But Pyongyang cut off ties with Seoul after the Kim-Trump diplomacy broke down in 2019 due to disputes over the US-led sanctions.
The recent North Korean outreach came as a response to South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s renewed calls for a political declaration to officially end the 1950-53 Korean war as a way to promote peace. The Korean war ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean peninsula still technically at war.
South Korea, US get ‘creative’ over Pyongyang as Moon calls to end Korean war
As possible reconciliation steps, Kim Yo-jong floated the idea of announcing the war’s end as Moon wished, rebuilding a joint liaison office that North Korea destroyed last year and holding an inter-Korean summit.
North Korea’s already devastated economy has suffered further recent setbacks from the coronavirus pandemic, which has decimated its external trade, mostly with its last major ally, China. Kim Jong-un has said his country faces the “worst-ever” crisis due to a combination of the pandemic, the sanctions and natural disasters last year.
It is unclear if the North Korean outreach would provide it with badly needed sanctions relief and other rewards. US officials have repeatedly expressed hopes to sit down for talks with North Korea, but have also made it clear they will continue sanctions until the North takes concrete steps toward denuclearisation.
02:15
North Korea’s test launch of railway-borne missile sparks international alarm
Meanwhile, Britain said on Sunday it had collected evidence of multiple ships from various nationalities apparently breaching United Nations sanctions against North Korea which ban the sale of fuel to the country.
British frigate HMS Richmond has been taking part in UN sanctions enforcement operations in the region.
“HMS Richmond’s deployment in the East China Sea identified ships acting in suspected breach of UN sanctions and tracked vessels which had previously not been flagged to the Enforcement Coordination Cell,” Defence Minister Ben Wallace said in a statement.
The statement did not detail those thought to be in breach of the sanctions, but said “multiple ships of various nationalities” had been identified.
Earlier this month, a US-based research group said in a report that smugglers suspected of evading sanctions on North Korea have turned to schemes to create fraudulent identities for sanctioned ships.
Additional reporting by Reuters
