N. Korea tone warm before heated words
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Diplomats from the United States and North Korea alternately shook hands and lobbed critiques at one another Saturday, in what appeared to be another roadblock in the path to negotiations aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.
At the annual conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Russia not to help North Korea cheat on U.N. sanctions that Moscow had supported.
Then, just a few short hours later, Pompeo and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho approached each other for a public handshake and exchanged promising pleasantries with big smiles. According to State Department spokesman Heather Nauert, Pompeo suggested they would talk soon, and Ri agreed, adding, “There are many productive conversations to be had.”
Nauert said that beyond the brief exchange at the group photo, Pompeo and Ri did not have a more formal meeting. Given where the United States and North Korea were a year ago, Nauert said, “This is a step in the right direction.”
As the two top diplomats returned to their seats, Sung
the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, approached Ri and handed him a white envelope bearing a letter from President Donald Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
While the full contents were unknown, Pompeo tweeted later Saturday that the letter was Trump’s reply to a missive the president received from Kim last week, which White House spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders characterized as a “follow-up” to their June summit in Singapore. In his own tweet, Trump described Kim’s letter as “nice,” breezily adding, “I look forward to seeing you soon!”
But things at the Singapore conference went downhill after Pompeo departed for Indonesia: Ri waited until then to deliver a sharp attack on the United States in remarks at the forum.
Though he said the North Korean government remains committed to a joint statement from the summit between Trump and Kim in June, Ri criticized the White House for insisting on maintaining sanctions until disarmament is complete and demanded “confidence-building” measures along the way.
“What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the U.S. to go back to the old; far from its leader’s intention,” Ri said.
The divergent rhetoric underscored the difficulties that have hampered previous attempts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs. It also was reminiscent of Pompeo’s latest visit to North Korea in July, when he declared the meetings “productive,” but North Korea hours later would say the U.S. approach was “gangster-like.”
Pompeo has acknowledged talks will be difficult and strung-out, but he said Saturday that he remains optimistic that eventually the two sides can reach a deal to end the North’s nuclear weapons program.
Pyongyang’s willingness to truly denuclearize has come into question lately. A confidential report by the United Nations, shown to reporters Friday, says North Korea has violated numerous U.N. Security Council sanctions by continuing to develop its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Also last week came news reports that intelligence agencies believe the North is developing new missiles.
Much of the discord stems from differences in how Washington and Pyongyang view the pace of rewards to North Korea if it proceeds with dismantling its weapons programs. Pompeo has insisted that the United States expects total denuclearization and that sanctions will remain in place until the process is
complete. North Korea, officially named the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, has demanded a phased approach, with sanctions eased in several steps as a show of goodwill.
“Confidence is not a sentiment to be cultivated overnight,” Ri said in his remarks after Pompeo’s departure. “In order to build full confidence between the DPRK and the U.S., it is essential for both sides to take simultaneous actions and phased steps to do what is possible one after another.”
Ri added: “Only when the U.S. ensures that we feel comfortable with and come close to it, will we be able to open our minds to the U.S. and show it in action.”
Instead of responding reciprocally to North Korea’s suspension of nuclear tests and missile launches and other goodwill gestures such as the return of suspected remains of American troops killed in the Korean War, the U.S. has maintained hostility, Ri said.
“The United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK and showing the attitude to retreat even from declaring the end of war, a very basic and primary step for providing peace on the Korean Peninsula,” he said. North and South Korea remain in a technical state of war because the fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty.
He also accused Washington of taking “extremely inappropriate
moves” by discouraging other countries from sending high-level delegations to the North’s 70th anniversary celebrations in September.
RUSSIA’S VIOLATIONS
Pompeo used the Singapore event to hold meetings with diplomats from more than two dozen countries to urge their governments to keep up the economic pressure on Pyongyang until its nuclear weapons program is irreversibly dismantled.
At a news conference, Pompeo noted reports that Russia was entering into joint ventures with companies in the North and granted new work permits to North Korean guest workers. He said the United States believes the reports, first published in The Wall Street Journal, are accurate and would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution restricting trade with North Korea.
“If these reports prove accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation,” Pompeo said, noting that the Security Council had voted unanimously in favor of the sanctions.
“I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something that we will discuss with Moscow,” he said.
“We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea. Any violation that detracts from the world’s goal of finally, fully denuclearizing North Korea would
be something that America would take very seriously.”
The report said North Korea had increased illegal shipto-ship transfers of oil products at sea to evade sanctions and enlisted a Syrian arms broker to sell weapons to Yemen and Libya.
Late Friday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley raised the alarm, saying that “talk is cheap.” “Russia cannot support sanctions with their words in the Security Council only to violate them with their actions,” she said in a statement. She made the remarks as the U.S. asked the Security Council to add a North Korean bank executive, a North Korean company, a Chinese company and a Russian bank to the U.N. sanctions blacklist.
In his discussions with Southeast Asian officials in Singapore, Pompeo said he had implored them all to “strictly enforce all sanctions,” including an end to ship-toship transfers of oil for North Korea, and had been encouraged by the response.
“From my meetings here, the world is united in seeing this achieved,” Pompeo told reporters. “There has not been single country that hasn’t thanked the United States for its efforts in moving the world toward the possibility of achieving this. … I’m optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline, and the world will celebrate what the U.N. Security Council has demanded.”
That view seemed to be supported by a communique expected from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
diplomats, who, along with representatives of Japan and South Korea, urged Washington and Pyongyang to “continue working towards the realization of lasting peace and stability on a denuclearized Korean Peninsula,” according to a draft seen by The Associated Press.
Pompeo started the morning with a rosy tweet, saying he had had productive discussions on North Korea with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. China is responsible for the lion’s share of trade across North Korea’s border.
“Our cooperation,” he tweeted, “… sends a strong signal to the region that, despite differences, #China and the US can work together to get important work done.”
Apart from urging continued support for being tough on Pyongyang, Pompeo’s three-day trip to Asia is part of a U.S. effort to boost trade ties with the region, despite the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
Pompeo pledged on Saturday to provide nearly $300 million in new security funding for Southeast Asia. He said it would be used to strengthen maritime security, develop humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping capabilities, and counter “transnational threats.”
Pompeo is now in Jakarta, Indonesia, where he is to meet today with President Joko Widodo.
Information for this article was contributed by Carol Morello of The Washington Post; by Matthew Lee and Edith M. Lederer of The Associated Press; and by Choe Sang-hun of The New York Times.