North Korea willing to hold nuclear talks with U.S.
PYONGYANG VOWS TO HALT NUCLEAR TESTS AHEAD OF ANY NEGOTIATIONS
North Korea has vowed to halt nuclear and missile tests if it holds talks with the U.S., in a major diplomatic breakthrough that could lead to a peaceful resolution of military tensions, officials revealed Tuesday.
The pledge was made during an unprecedented meeting between top South Korean security officials and Kim Jong Un, the reclusive North Korean leader, in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Monday evening.
U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed the developments, praising the “possible progress” from the talks and saying that all sides were putting in “serious effort.”
However other U.S. administration figures were more wary. Mike Pence, the vice president, said “credible, verifiable and concrete steps toward denuclearization” would be needed before America changed its stance of applying “maximum pressure” on the regime.
Dan Coats, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said he was “quite skeptical” about the announcement, adding: “Maybe this is a breakthrough. I seriously doubt it. As I said, hope springs eternal.”
North Korea has previously said it would give up its nuclear weapons, and has reneged on every deal it has ever signed. The scope of any proposed talks was also unclear. At various times, Pyongyang has demanded the full withdrawal of the U.S. military from South Korea or the withdrawal of “nuclear” troops and weapons — of which there currently are none in the South. Pyongyang had also demanded the cancellation of U.S. military exercises in exchange for eliminating its own weapons.
Similarly, the Trump administration has not clarified whether North Korea must pledge the “denuclearization” President Donald Trump has demanded as a precondition for substantive talks, or it must be agreed at the end of negotiations.
But the sudden thaw could, at the very least, bring about a reprieve in the months of acute tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Trump said Tuesday that the United States remained “determined to achieve a denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” He did not directly address the possibility of talks, but said of the news from Seoul, “hopefully it’s positive, hopefully it will lead to a very positive result.”
Speaking at a news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, Trump was asked “to what do you owe” the reported North Korean offer, Trump replied “Me,” apparently referring to U.S. sanctions and his harsh personal criticism of Kim. “No,” he quickly countered as silence engulfed the room. “Nobody got that.”
“I think they are sincere, but I think they are sincere also because of the sanctions and what we’re doing in respect to North Korea,” Trump said, describing the measures as “very strong and very biting.” He also said that “the great help we’ve been given from China” has played a role, although there are repeated reports of North Korea using Chinese companies to evade international sanctions.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., credited Trump’s harsh rhetoric toward North Korea as drawing Kim to the negotiating table. “I do think and I want to think that this aggressive behaviour of our president is going to have a positive effect on him.”
Earlier, when he met Lofven in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that he’d “like to be optimistic,” and blamed his three predecessors — Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — for failing to secure the nuclear disarmament of North Korea.
“This should’ve been handled over many years by many different administrations, but these are the cards we are dealt,” Trump said. He added: “It never worked out. That was the time to have settled this problem — not now.”
The Korean overtures come at a time when the United States has no ambassador in South Korea and no special representative on North Korea, and when the nominee for assistant secretary of state for East Asia has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.
In another significant development, North and South Korea agreed to hold their first joint summit in more than a decade in late April, according to Chung Euiyong, who led the South’s two-day delegation to the North.
The summit between Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, and Kim will be held in the border village of Panmunjom, within the highly militarized zone between the two countries who are still technically at war.
Chung said yesterday that North Korea had expressed its willingness to talk to America “in an open-ended dialogue to discuss the issue of denuclearization and to normalize relations.”
Pyongyang indicated that it would not need to keep its nuclear weapons if military threats against the country were resolved and it received a credible security guarantee, said the South Korean envoy.
The North Koreans, who dined with their South Korean counterparts for four hours, also vowed never to use nuclear and conventional weapons against the South, Chung added.
The two Koreas also agreed to establish a hotline between the leaders of the two sides to ease military tensions and to be able to consult closely. They will test the line with a phone call before the summit.