[Editorial] Next round of N. Korea-US negotiations need to be productive and fruitful

US President Donald Trump talks to reporters in front of the White House on Aug. 9. (AP/Yonhap News)

On Aug. 10, US President Donald Trump said that North Korean Kim Jong-un had sent him a personal letter expressing his desire to start negotiations as soon as the South Korea-US joint military exercises conclude. Since the exercises will be ending on Aug. 20, working-level talks between North Korea and the US could conceivably be held as early as late August. We hope the two sides’ denuclearization negotiations — which have been at a standstill since their summit this past February — will finally resume and starting moving forward again.

When Trump and Kim held a surprise meeting at Panmunjom at the end of June, they initially agreed to hold working-level talks within two or three weeks. But while the two sides have been wrangling over the most suitable timing and agenda for the talks, North Korea has launched a series of what are presumed to be short-range missiles since the end of July, causing some to conclude that the talks aren’t likely to be held any time soon. The North even “stood up” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who’d been hoping to meet with North Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Lee Yong-ho, at the ASEAN Regional Forum, by instructing Lee to stay home. Fortunately, this change of attitude reconfirms Pyongyang’s commitment to the negotiations.

In a tweet on Saturday, Trump said that much of Kim’s letter was spent “complaining about the ridiculous and expensive [South Korea-US joint] exercises. It was also a small apology for testing the short range missiles, and that this testing would stop when the exercises end.” Hopefully, there will be no more missile launches, which destabilize the Korean Peninsula and raise military tensions.

A tweet posted by US President Donald Trump on Aug. 10 indicating that North Korean leader has sent him a letter expressing his desire to resume negotiations.

At the same time, it’s very regrettable that North Korea badmouthed South Korea using harsh language in an Aug. 11 statement signed by a Foreign Ministry official responsible for talks with the US. The statement was a litany of nasty remarks that call into question whatever shreds of credibility remain to Pyongyang. North Korea said that the Blue House “made a racket” when it recently convened an emergency meeting of related ministers to discuss the North’s missile launches. The statement said it was “quite a spectacle” to see South Korean officials “tossing and turning all night long” and then said it was “impudent for thieves to raise the alarm about a theft.”

All this has occurred between states whose leaders have met no fewer than four times in the past year and a half for sincere talks about peace and reconciliation. Criticism has its place, but basic courtesy and dignity should be maintained.

Even if working-level negotiations between North Korea and the US resume, huge gaps in the two sides’ viewpoint about what denuclearization would mean, how to get there, and what the North gets in exchange mean that the going won’t be easy. A flexible stance is more important now than ever before. Our hope is that both North Korea and the US will give a little ground to create an opportunity to set up a peace regime and achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The South Korean government also needs to do everything it can to ensure that these negotiations are productive and fruitful.

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