DPRK, US hold working-level talks
The United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have resumed working-level talks, started the denuclearization negotiations which some experts say could be a lengthy process.
The delegations led by the DPRK Vice-Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and Sung Kim, US ambassador to the Philippines, held the talks on Sunday at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, Yonhap News Agency reported, adding that the one-hour meeting is also believed to coordinate the agenda of an upcoming visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang.
During the talks, a letter from Pompeo was allegedly delivered to Kim Yong-chol, vice-chairman of the DPRK’s Workers’ Party of Korea’s Central Committee.
The DPRK top leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump signed a joint statement during their historic meeting in Singapore on June 12 to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula in exchange for security guarantees for the DPRK.
White House national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday he believed Pyongyang’s weapons program could be dismantled within a year as the two resumed talks.
Bolton said Washington has devised a program to dismantle the DPRK’s weapons of mass destruction — chemical, biological and nuclear — and ballistic missile programs in a year, if there is full cooperation from Pyongyang.
“Physically we would be able to dismantle the overwhelming bulk of their programs within a year.”
He said Pompeo would likely discuss that proposal with DPRK officials soon.
Japan has lowered its military readiness level against the DPRK missiles as Washington embarks on nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang.
Wang Junsheng, an associate researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said as negotiations progress, the gap between the two in time schedule to achieve denuclearization could be difficult to bridge. “It may take a long period of time, but what is more important is to reach a consensus on the form of denuclearization,” Wang added.
In another development, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Monday that Beijing is “genuinely pleased” that Pyongyang and Seoul are actively contacting and interacting with each other and reaching more and more consensus.
The neighbors are taking concrete measures to implement the consensus their leaders reached in the two meetings according to the Panmunjom Declaration and keeping up the push for reconciliation and cooperation.
Such efforts help consolidate mutual trust, improve ties and maintain the easing of tensions in the Korean Peninsula, Lu said.
China has always been actively supporting the DPRK and the ROK in improving ties, Lu said, calling for the international community to show more encouragement of such efforts and play a constructive role for the denuclearization and the process of political settlement of the peninsula.
US national security adviser