South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are ramping up their diplomatic efforts to ensure policy coherence and cooperation in the face of North Korea’s peace offensive.
Cho Tae-yong, Seoul’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, left for Washington on Tuesday to meet with Glyn Davies, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, and Shinsuke Sugiyama, director-general of Tokyo’s Asian and Oceanian affairs.
The three chief nuclear negotiators’ gathering was arranged days after Pyongyang offered a high-level meeting with Washington to curb military tensions and discuss a peace treaty and a U.S. crusade for a nuclear-free world.
Last week, what would have been the first high-level cross-border dialogue in six years collapsed following disputes over lead delegates ― much to the dismay of the families displaced by the Korean War and businesspeople who ran factories in Gaeseong.
The latest overture, however, was met with a cool response from Seoul and Washington calling on the unpredictable regime to demonstrate through actions its readiness to engage in “credible negotiations.”
Presidents Park Geun-hye and Barack Obama had a 20-minute phone call on Monday during which they vowed not to hold talks for talks’ sake.
“The key piece here is that they need to take credible steps to move towards concrete denuclearization,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said at a media briefing.
“We’ve always said that in coordination with our partners of the six-party talks we would be open to that, but they need to take those steps first.”
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the dialogue offer as a “foreseen, typical tactic” and a “peace offensive that raises doubts about North Korea’s genuine willingness for denuclearization.”
“The North has been attempting a tactical turnaround in the situation for the easing of sanctions and a laxity of cooperation between key interest holders,” it said in an analysis provided to the National Assembly on Tuesday.
For the resumption of talks, Pyongyang will have to endure at least what was agreed in its deal with Washington on Feb. 29 last year, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said.
Under the so-called Leap Day Deal, the North agreed to put a moratorium on its nuclear enrichment program, halt atomic and missile tests and let in IAEA inspectors, in return for 240,000 tons of food assistance. But it was revoked about a month later with the communist state’s firing of a long-range rocket.
“There is a mood in Washington that the level of the Feb. 29 agreement must hold out, and perhaps a plus-alpha is needed given the aggravated situation surrounding North Korea,” Yun told lawmakers.
Meanwhile, Kim Kye-gwan, North Korean vice foreign minister and chief nuclear envoy, touched down in Beijing for a “strategic dialogue” with his Chinese counterpart Zhang Yesui.
The trip came weeks after Choe Ryong-hae, director of the General Political Bureau of the (North) Korean People’s Army, traveled to Beijing as leader Kim Jong-un’s special envoy and expressed Pyongyang’s willingness for dialogue.
China has been heaping pressure on its headstrong ally to refrain from escalating tensions and return to the stalled six-nation aid-for-disarmament forum also involving Russia.
President Xi Jinping reaffirmed efforts with Obama for the denuclearization of the peninsula during their first meeting earlier this month. The North’s biggest political and economic backer has also severed transactions with Pyongyang’s chief foreign exchange bank.
After the planned summit between Park and Xi, the two leaders will likely stipulate their commitment to North Korea’s denuclearization in their joint agreement, Yun said.
“The denuclearization of North Korea is a priority for not only South Korea and the U.S. but also China,” Yun said at the parliamentary session.
By Shin Hyon-hee (
heeshin@heraldcorp.com)
