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Sung Kim, US special envoy for North Korea, during talks on Monday in Seoul. Photo: DPA

US ready for talks ‘anytime, anywhere’ with North Korea: Biden’s nuclear envoy

  • Sung Kim, after discussions with his counterparts from Seoul and Tokyo, says Washington hopes Pyongyang will respond positively to its outreach
  • Their meeting came days after Kim Jong-un said North Korea was ready for ‘both dialogue and confrontation’
North Korea

Sung Kim, the US special representative for North Korea – speaking after discussions in Seoul with his South Korean counterpart Noh Kyu-duk and Japan’s nuclear envoy Takehiro Funakoshi – said the Biden administration’s policy called for “a calibrated, practical approach” that included possible diplomacy with Pyongyang.

“We continue to hope [North Korea] will respond positively to our outreach and our offer to meet anywhere, anytime, without preconditions,” he said, adding that the US would press ahead with United Nations sanctions put in place to punish North Korea for its tests of nuclear devices and missiles that could carry warheads to the US mainland.

North Korea must prepare for ‘dialogue and confrontation’ with US, Kim Jong-un says

Their meeting was the first among the envoys since Biden took office. It came just days after North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un said the country was ready for “both dialogue and confrontation”, offering the highest-level opening for discussions since Biden replaced Donald Trump, who met Kim three times.

But Kim tempered his comments at a high-level meeting of his ruling party with a call to “get fully prepared for confrontation in order to protect the dignity of our state and its interests”. The words served as a reminder to Washington of the security risks posed by his nuclear arsenal, which only grew larger during Trump’s term in office.

The previous major statement from North Korea on dialogue came in March when First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui called US attempts for communication a “time-delaying trick”.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un says the country is ready for “both dialogue and confrontation”. Photo: AP

“We took note of Chairman Kim’s recent statement, referring to both dialogue and confrontation. We will be prepared for either,” said Sung Kim, a career diplomat who has worked on North Korea-related issues under Republican and Democratic administrations, ahead of the three-way meeting. The US envoy later reaffirmed that Seoul and Washington would pursue the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula through diplomacy and dialogue.

“I also reiterated our support for meaningful inter-Korean dialogue, cooperation and engagement as our two leaders did in Washington,” he said, referring to last month’s summit involving Biden and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in.

Is North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un learning to delegate?

During the Monday talks, Noh said Seoul would continue to play a part in the early resumption of dialogue with Pyongyang through coordination with Washington.

“We wish to restore the structure where inter-Korean and US-[North Korea] relations reinforce each other in a mutually beneficial way,” he said. Seoul is pushing to resume exchanges with the North, starting with humanitarian aid such as food assistance and Covid-19 vaccinations.

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute in Seongnam, said Kim’s latest remarks “conspicuously lacked” Pyongyang’s typically harsh attacks against Washington over its policies including the annual US-South Korea military drills and the deployment of American military strategic assets near the Korean peninsula.

“Should the US call for a complete denuclearisation of the North, Pyongyang would be unable to accept it,” he said. “But the North is likely to accept a deal in which its nuclear programmes would be frozen and the existing nuclear arsenal would be curtailed in return for easing sanctions in phases and ending the US-South Korea military exercises.”

From left: nuclear envoys Sung Kim from the US, Noh Kyu-duk from South Korea and Takehiro Funakoshi of Japan. Photo: DPA

Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said the key issues were still the extent of Pyongyang’s denuclearisation and the lifting of sanctions in return. “US and South Korean officials are likely to be discussing the possibility of easing sanctions that would relieve humanitarian concerns in the North,” he said.

One of the major messages Kim Jong-un delivered at the ruling party meeting earlier this year was the need to improve the economy, offering a rare warning of dire conditions by saying the food situation was “getting tense”.

North Korea battles chronic food shortages. Conditions were made worse by typhoons last year that wiped out crops and by Kim’s decision to shut borders due to Covid-19, slamming the brakes on the little legal trade it has.

Kim Jong-un says Covid-19, typhoons made North Korea’s food situation ‘tense’

Fitch Solutions in April said North Korea’s economy would barely grow this year after its worst contraction in decades as the country continues to struggle with the pandemic, international sanctions to punish it for its nuclear and missile testing, and a lack of trade with China.

The Trump administration demanded the “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation” of North Korea before it would ease up on sanctions. The demand was a non-starter for North Korea, which calculates that nuclear arms will prevent a US invasion and abandoning them as tantamount to political suicide.

The Biden administration has indicated it could be willing to look at an incremental approach where it gives targeted rewards in return for disarmament steps. Biden has also sought the help of allies Japan and South Korea in building a united front against the security threats posed by the likes of North Korea and China.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: U.S. hopes for ‘positive reply to talks offer’
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