Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Kim goes to school
In an undated photo provided Saturday by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un poses with children at the 250-mile Journey for Learning Schoolchildren’s Palace in Kanggye, Chagang province. As South Korea faces calls to increase pressure on Kim in response to recent missile tests, South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo sounded a cautionary note, saying he believes that “the hidden intent” of the tests is to prompt new dialogue in the peace process.
SINGAPORE — South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo on Saturday fended off calls to step up pressure on North Korea after it test-fired missiles last month.
Jeong told the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security conference in Singapore, that the tests were being investigated and a conclusion is within reach.
“There are discussions whether or not it is a shortrange ballistic missile. There is a perspective that it is a Russian Iskander missile, or it is a new tactical ballistic missile,” he said. “There are data that we can verify, and we are working off those data to make sure we have a verification.”
Jeong was responding to a question on whether the tests were a violation of a September military agreement between South and North Korea to halt acts of aggression against each other.
He said the North was “in fact acting within the boundaries” of the agreement and tensions between their militaries “have been lowered to a significant extent.”
“So currently the actions done by the North Korean regime have the intent to carry out the peace process through dialogue and talks. And I believe that’s the hidden intent behind the lines in terms of their missile launches.”
Jeong called on the international community to “assure North Korea that the decision to denuclearize is indeed the right decision.”
He said that South Korea sees humanitarian aid and the lowering of military tensions as ways “to lead North Korea into conversation and away from … the ways of the past.”
North Korea itself has defended the launches, saying it was exercising its right to self-defense.
The U.S. and Japan say the short-range ballistic missile tests on May 4 and May 9 were a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The tests ended a pause in launches that began in late 2017, and occurred as negotiations to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons are deadlocked.
Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya, who spoke at the same session on Korean security, stressed that a strict implementation of sanctions against North Korea was necessary.
He specifically directed his comments at South Korea, China and Russia.
“We need to enhance surveillance on a global scale while strengthening effort locally to ensure the full implementation of sanctions,” Iwaya said.
Earlier Saturday, U.S. acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan said at the conference that North Korea “remains an extraordinary threat” and has “neared a point where it could credibly strike regional allies, U.S. territory, and our forward-deployed forces.”
Stephen Biegun, President Donald Trump’s top nuclear envoy, added that the president will continue to seek talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after the 2018 summit in Singapore and February’s failed summit in Vietnam.
“The United States is convinced that through continued negotiations, we can continue to close the gaps that separate our two countries and make further progress on all the goals that we committed to in Singapore,” Biegun said Saturday.
“I want to emphasize the commitments we have made to the North Koreans,” he added. “And we have made these commitments directly and indirectly, privately and publicly — to remain engaged, avoid provocations.”
Biegun’s office later clarified that he meant North Korea should remain engaged, refrain from provocations, and through negotiations make progress on the Singapore commitments.
U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said about a week ago that Biegun “can’t wait to talk to his North Korean counterpart, but they haven’t responded.”
South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Friday that Biegun’s North Korean counterpart, Kim Hyok Chol, was executed along with four other Foreign Ministry officials in March after the failed U.S.-North Korea summit in February. Seoul’s presidential office suggested that reports of the envoy’s demise should be treated with some skepticism, and Biegun didn’t comment Saturday on the reports.