Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Revival sought of N. Korea nuclear deal
Denuclearization concerns prompt special appointment
The president has boasted he ended North Korea's nuclear threat, but evidence indicates Kim Jong Un has not stopped production.
WASHINGTON — Two months after President Donald Trump declared that North Korea is “no longer a nuclear threat,” growing evidence suggests that leader Kim Jong Un has not shut down the country’s illicit production of bomb-making material and other nuclear activities, raising concerns that the proposed denuclearization deal has stalled at the starting gate.
Hoping to pressure the government in Pyongyang, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday he would return to the reclusive nation next week and bring a newly appointed special U.S. representative, Ford Motor Co. executive Stephen Biegun, to take over the challenging negotiations.
The visit will be Pompeo’s fourth to North Korea since March, and the third since Trump and Kim met in Singapore in June and agreed to a brief, vaguely worded statement that served to lower tensions in northeast Asia, but contained few specifics .
The White House has asserted since the summit that Kim pledged to dismantle his nuclear infrastructure and give up his arsenal of several dozen nuclear weapons in exchange for U.S. security guarantees. Kim has not confirmed that publicly, focusing instead on his call to ease economic sanctions against his country.
After the summit, Trump announced he would halt long-planned joint annual U.S. military exercises with South Korean forces as a goodwill gesture. North Korea, in turn, last month handed over the remains of 55 soldiers from the Korean War that it said were probably American.
While North Korea has not tested any nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles since the summit, the far more difficult goal of denuclearization has gone nowhere. On Monday, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency, said it had detected no signs that North Korea has begun to dismantle critical nuclear infrastructure or halt production of fissile material.
The IAEA report said Pyongyang’s continued nuclear activities, including the operation of a reactor, a uranium enrichment facility and related infrastructure at the Yongbyon nuclear facility, were “cause for grave concern” and were “clear violations” of several U.N. resolutions.
The IAEA also noted it has no access to nuclear production and research sites in North Korea to carry out inspections, as Pompeo has said would be required. The agency’s inspectors were kicked out of the country in 2009
“As further nuclear activities take place in the country, (the agency’s) knowledge is declining,” the report added.
The international 2015 Iran nuclear deal allowed the most intrusive IAEA inspections to date. But Trump walked away from that accord, saying it didn’t go far enough in curtailing Tehran’s support for militants in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere.
On Thursday, Pompeo made clear he would step aside from the day-to-day effort. He said Biegun would “direct U.S. policy toward North Korea,” lead negotiations with Pyongyang and “spearhead diplomatic efforts with our allies and partners” in the effort to produce a final, verified disarmament deal.
Russia and China, which have voted for U.N. sanctions on North Korea, have begun to ease them in the wake of the summit. The Trump administration blacklisted several Russian shipping companies for allegedly supplying North Korea with oil in violation of the sanctions.
Biegun, who spent nearly two decades working on foreign policy issues in the Senate and in the George W. Bush White House, most recently worked as vice president of international government affairs at Ford Motor Co. In his comments, Biegun made clear the challenge ahead.
“The issues are tough, and they will be tough to resolve,” he said. “But the president has created an opening, and it’s one that we must take by seizing every possible opportunity to realize the vision for a peaceful future for the people of North Korea.”
By all accounts, Biegun is not particularly partisan. Writing for Foreign Policy magazine in 2009, Biegun assessed the first 100 days of the Obama presidency in glowing terms.
“Many solid personnel appointments, no apparent turmoil inside the administration, no noteworthy mistakes on the international stage, and Congress is following the president’s lead,” he wrote. “Four years of this would be great.”
Foreign policy experts praised Biegun on Thursday as sharp and talented, and no stranger to tough negotiations.
Michael McFaul, a former ambassador to Russia and frequent critic of the Trump administration, called his appointment a “terrific” choice for a “huge, hard, important job.”