[Editorial] Summit success depends on how US guarantees North Korea’s regime security

Vice chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and director of the WPK United Front Department Kim Yong-chol poses for a commemorative photograph with US President Trump (center) after their meeting at the White House on June 1. During their meeting, Kim Yong-chol delivered a letter to Trump from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Following his meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York, North Korean Kim Yong-chol, the vice chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and director of the WPK United Front Department, who is currently in the US, met with US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on June 1. Kim handed Trump a personal letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. This appears to have put the North Korea-US summit, which had gotten bogged down in uncertainty, back on solid ground.

Kim’s visit to the US both achieved definite results and leaves work to be done. To begin with the results, the ongoing tug-of-war between North Korea and the US over the summit agenda appears to be nearing some sort of conclusion. This interpretation is reinforced by Pompeo’s statement after the meeting in New York that “substantive progress” had been achieved.

At the same time, Pompeo’s remarks that “there remains a great deal of work to do” and that “it will take bold leadership from Chairman Kim Jong-un” suggest that disagreements remain about the key points of contention. In the end, everything depends on how quickly, and in what manner, the US provides the Pyongyang regime with a definite security guarantee in exchange for complete denuclearization, including the dismantlement of the Norths’ intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

In regard to this issue, attention ought to be paid to a “third way” – an alternative approach that was recently proposed in South Korea. Former Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok’s two-stage solution points to a new way of trading denuclearization for a security guarantee. The first stage and crux of this solution is for North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons and ICBMs – by shipping them overseas, for example – and for the US to reward the North by officially ending the Korean War (or signing a non-aggression pact), establishing diplomatic relations with the North and lifting sanctions on the North, with all this taking place within six months.

This approach would appear to enable the US to directly resolve the security threat and for North Korea to lay a solid foundation for regime security within the brief period of six months. In the second stage, North Korea would dismantle and verify all facilities related to nuclear materials, while the US would compensate the North by providing it with economic rewards and by forging a peace treaty. This proposal can be regarded as a concrete elaboration of the “comprehensive and compact step-by-step solution” that the South Korean government has suggested as a mediator between North Korea and the US. Since the core of negotiations between North Korea and the US is swapping complete denuclearization for a complete security guarantee, this ought to be acceptable to both North Korea and the US.

Since the roadmap for denuclearization and a security guarantee is a central and decisive issue, it is possible that this could ultimately be resolved if Trump and Kim sit down to hash out a deal. The reason Trump has hinted at the possibility of holding two or three North Korea-US summits is probably because he recognizes that it will not be easy to reach an understanding on this issue.

But now that the points of contention have become clear and a solution of some sort has been proposed, it might not be that difficult for the two leaders to reach a breakthrough, if they have the courage to do so. We hope that Trump and Kim will have the wisdom to take a walk in each other’s shoes and open the door for a major compromise.

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