Optimism and caution from US ahead of Moon-Kim summit

WASHINGTON — The United States on Monday struck an optimistic but tough tone over the prospect of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, as the summit between Republic of Korea President Moon Jae-in and top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Jongun approaches.

US Defense Secretary James Mattis said on Monday that he was optimistic that the dialogue with the DPRK will be positive.

“Right now, I think there is a lot of reasons for optimism that the negotiations will be fruitful and we’ll see,” Mattis said.

The statement came after Pyongyang announced on Saturday that it was halting nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and would close a nuclear test site to ensure the transparency of its effort.

When asked about the DPRK move, White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said in a press briefing that “we’ve seen some steps in the right direction”.

“We also have seen a major change in what has taken place in the past,” she added.

However, Sanders said on Monday there would be no letup in the US’ “maximum pressure” campaign until “we see concrete actions taken toward complete and total denuclearization”.

For his part, US President Donald Trump has seemed to turn more cautious, as he tweeted on Sunday that “we are a long way from conclusion on North Korea (the DPRK), maybe things will work out, and maybe they won’t. Only time will tell”.

Positive momentum around the Korean Peninsula has been building in recent months, thanks to the interKorean diplomacy around the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and international efforts to promote dialogue between the DPRK and ROK, and with the US.

Troy Stangarone, senior director at the Korea Economic Institute, a Washingtonbased nonprofit policy research institution, said that enormous credit should go to countries like China “for creating the environment needed for the upcoming inter-Korean summit”.

Without these continuous efforts to push for dialogue with the DPRK, the world “might not be where we are today”, he added, explaining that the participation of Pyongyang in the Olympics helped “shift the narrative of confrontation on the Korean Peninsula to one of dialogue”.