US underlines need for ‘interim steps’ toward NK denuclearization

— The top U.S. nuclear envoy pointed out the need Tuesday for “interim steps” to be taken on a path towards North Korea’s ultimate denuclearization, which she stressed would not happen “overnight.”

U.S. Senior Official for North Korea Jung Pak made the remarks while reiterating Washington’s “clear” goal to pursue the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

On Monday, Mira Rapp-Hooper, the U.S. National Security Council senior director for East Asia and Oceania, also said that Washington will consider “interim steps” — a statement that raised speculation about a potential U.S. policy shift.

“I don’t want to prejudge that as a final step,” she said at a forum hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “But I think it goes without saying that there would have to be interim steps toward ultimate denuclearization.”

Pak was responding to a question of whether interim steps would involve the North’s nuclear weapons freeze in return for sanctions relief and how the United States would prevent interim measures from ending up being a final step.

U.S. officials’ mention of such steps raised speculation that Washington could exert more flexibility to deliver on its repeated commitment to engaging in “serious and sustained” diplomacy with Pyongyang that has so far rejected talks on its denuclearization.

Pak called attention to the fact that there are “a lot of weapons to be dealt with” in an apparent indication that those weapons should also be addressed alongside or before potential future negotiations over the North’s nuclear programs.

“I think it is really important to acknowledge that there is a lot of weapons to be dealt with,” she said, noting the North’s efforts to develop solid-fuel ballistic missiles, tactical nuclear weapons, hypersonic capabilities and unmanned underwater vehicles.

“Given the scope of the DPRK weapons activities and its proliferation, there is a lot to work with there … It is not going to happen overnight. That’s the reality of it,” she added. DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.