[Editorial] North Korea and US share determination to move forward with denuclearization talks

US President Donald Trump

On July 9, US President Donald Trump tweeted that he was sure that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would “honor the contract we signed” and “our handshake.”

While this is partially designed to pressure North Korea, it also appears to be an attempt to counter distrust of North Korea and skepticism about the negotiations that are evident in the US press and political establishment in regard to the results of the high-level North Korea-US talks. Trump’s emphasis on the contract and handshake and his determination to tackle head on the negative opinions about the North Korea-US negotiations should be regarded as a positive step for the negotiations moving ahead.

Trump’s reaction can also be seen as a response to North Korea emphasizing that it trusts Trump even while expressing its dissatisfaction at the results of the high-level talks. It is safe to say that North Korea and the US share the determination to move forward with the denuclearization negotiations without being swayed by naysayers. It was also encouraging that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested that the Vietnamese way was the future of North Korea during a visit to Vietnam.

This means that the model of Vietnam – a former enemy of the US that normalized relations and then developed its economy – could represent the future of North Korea-US relations. In contrast with the Libyan model mentioned by White House National Security Advisor John Bolton, the Vietnamese model is a message that would be more palatable for North Korea.

In a certain sense, it’s only natural for the North Korea-US negotiations to run into some discord and disagreement as they move from generalities to specifics. In connection with this, Pompeo’s remarks at a public event that he would go crazy if he paid attention to the press and that the press only covers the negative stuff can be understood as expressing his determination not to be swayed by the mainstream press’s excessive skepticism about the negotiations.

The mainstream American press and political establishment’s onslaught of negative reports and exacerbation of friction between North Korea and the US is fundamentally the product of deep-rooted distrust of the North, but another cause is the glacial pace of the North Korea-US negotiations. The only way for North Korea and the US to quell this skepticism is to make more preparations and reach groundbreaking progress in the negotiations.

In that regard, repatriating the remains of American POW/MIA could be a good opportunity to confirm their mutual trust and to speed up the negotiations. The US Defense Department expressed its expectations by noting that it is prepared to receive the remains of American soldiers, and Pompeo said that repatriating the remains will build trust between North Korea and the US. Since working-level talks about repatriating the remains are scheduled to be held at Panmunjeom on July 12, we hope that a meaningful agreement will be reached there.

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