Koreas meet, but warning issued by Kim
Trump hints at Pyongyang talks
SOUTH Korea will send a delegation led by senior security officials for a two-day visit to North Korea today, the presidential Blue House announced yesterday, as US President Donald Trump hinted that he was ready to talk to Pyongyang.
For its part, North Korea said it was not begging to talk to Washington and denounced coming US-South Korean joint-military exercises, warning it would take counter measures against the US if it went ahead.
The drills will take place next month, a South Korean presidential security adviser said.
They had been delayed until after the Winter Olympics and Paralympic games in South Korea.
South Korea’s presidential Blue House said that National Security Office (NSO) head Chung Eui-yong and National Intelligence Service (NIS) chief Suh Hoon, a veteran of past negotiations with the North, would be among the 10-member delegation visiting Pyongyang.
The visit was part of an effort to lower tension on the Korean peninsula and to possibly arrange talks between North Korea and the US, it said.
After the visit to North Korea the envoys will go to the US to brief officials, and Seoul said it would also co-ordinate closely with officials in Japan and China.
During a joke-filled monologue at a dinner with journalists in Washington on Saturday, Trump suggested the US would be meeting North Korea, but has told Pyongyang it must first “denuke”.
“We will be meeting and we’ll see if anything positive happens,” he added. It was unclear if Trump was joking or if formal US-North Korea talks were imminent.
Speaking in Beijing yesterday ahead of the opening of China’s parliament, Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui said China hoped the US and North Korea could begin dialogue.
“War and chaos on the peninsula in not in the interests of any side,” Zhang said.
Last month, US Vice-President Mike Pence was scheduled to meet North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong-Un’s sister, while in South Korea for the Winter Olympics, but the North Koreans cancelled the meeting at the last minute.
North Korea reiterated on Saturday that it was willing to talk to the US, but said it would not sit with any precondition. A North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying “we will neither beg for dialogue nor evade the military option claimed by the US”.
A commentary published by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency warned that the North would “counter the US” if joint military drills went ahead.
The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang last month gave a boost to recent engagement between the two Koreas after more than a year of sharply rising tension over the North’s missile programme and its sixth – and largest – nuclear test, held in defiance of UN sanctions.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in hopes to capitalise on that thaw in relations by arranging talks over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programme.
During a phone call on Thursday, Moon told Trump of his plan to send a special envoy to North Korea in response to an invitation from leader Kim Jong-Un.
In sending an envoy to Pyongyang, Moon said he would be seeking to reciprocate Kim Jong-Un’s decision to send a senior delegation, including his sister, Kim Yo Jong, to the Olympics, marking the first visit by a member of the North’s ruling bloodline since the 1950-53 Korean War.
The White House has said that any talks with North Korea must lead to an end of its nuclear programme.
On February 23, the US said it was imposing its largest package of sanctions to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programmes.
At the time, Trump warned of a “phase two” that could be “very, very unfortunate for the world” if the steps did not work.