‘Better to jaw-jaw than war-war’
NEEDED TO SOLVE US-NORTH KOREA IMPASSE Pyongyang missile test puts extra strain on already tense relationship.
After North Korea’s shock demonstration that it can strike the American mainland with an intercontinental missile, US officials say their focus remains on finding a diplomatic solution to avert a catastrophic conflict.
But with Washington reluctant to be seen to be rewarding Pyongyang, whose leader Kim Jong-un has been taunting the “American bastards”, can the two sides manage to sit down and thrash out their differences face to face?
Analysts and diplomats who are veterans of previous flare-ups in tensions between the two countries acknowledge there are huge obstacles in the way of talks – not least because they have no diplomatic relations.
But they also say talks are not only possible but really the only viable solution, whether talking directly or via third parties – including senior US politicians outside the Trump administration.
“The only way out of here is diplomacy,” said James Clapper, who spent years as a US intelligence chief in South Korea and was later director of national intelligence under Barack Obama.
Donald Trump said in May he would be “honoured” to meet Kim under what he called the right circumstances, in essence demanding North Korea first halts its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
While the US president promised a “pretty severe” retort to North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile test, defence secretary Jim Mattis’ response was to echo Britain’s wartime leader Winston Churchill’s famous mantra that it is “better to jaw-jaw than war-war.”
And Kim also appeared to leave the door open for talks after Tuesday’s test, saying his nuclear and ballistic missile programmes could be “on the table” if the US dropped what he called its “hostile policy”.
While Pyongyang has been seeking to engage Washington in bilateral talks for decades, Washington has insisted on indirect and informal contacts.
Through the 2000s, a six-party format – including China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea – appeared to draw North Korea, then under Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, towards some level of outside nuclear monitoring and a possible slowdown in their programme.
But that process collapsed in 2009 and since gaining power two years later, Kim Jong-un has dismissed talks for his determination to achieve nuclear status, as much for his domestic political stature as demonstrating the country’s military prowess. – AFP