North Korea’s abrupt offer to the United States for high-level talks has left many puzzled on its intentions.
In a statement issued by the National Defense Commission on Sunday, the North proposed that the two sides meet to discuss issues of mutual interest, including easing military tension on the Korean Peninsula, replacing the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a permanent peace treaty, and the U.S. vision for a nuclear-free world.
The agenda it suggests is nothing new. So what prompted Pyongyang to propose talks to Washington? Did it make the offer expecting that Washington would accept it? Or did it have other purposes in mind?
Washington has repeatedly stressed that it will not engage in talks with the North unless it shows clear signals that it is serious about abandoning its nuclear programs.
U.S. officials maintained this stance as to Pyongyang’s unexpected overture. “We’ll judge them by their actions, not by the nice words that we heard yesterday,” said Denis McDonough, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff.
In the statement, the North does reaffirm its commitment to denuclearization, recalling that achieving a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula is one of the key death-bed instructions of Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea, and Kim Jong-il, his son.
Notably, it is the first time that the North has renewed its denuclearization pledge since Kim Jong-un took power. The young leader has until recently vowed to pursue a dual-track strategy of nuclear buildup and economic development.
Yet the statement calls into question the credibility of the denuclearization pledge by justifying the North’s possession of nuclear weapons. It argues in a contradictory fashion that the North’s nuclear armament is intended to make the entire Korean Peninsula free of atomic weapons.
In short, the statement contains little that would make Washington interested in reopening dialogue with Pyongyang. The North’s true intentions will manifest themselves later.
One motivation may be its desire to get out of the strangling international sanctions imposed on it following its launch of a long-range rocket and the third nuclear test.
But as the White House official noted, the North should be under no illusion that it would be able to “talk their way out of the very significant sanctions.”
Whatever the North’s intentions may be, it will not be able to elicit a meaningful response from Washington unless it is genuinely ready to disarm and open up to the outside world.
What Pyongyang should do now is to focus on talks with Seoul to normalize the operation of the Gaeseong industrial complex.
