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North Korean First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Kye-gwan
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North Korean first vice foreign minister and veteran nuclear negotiator “a big deal”
With North Korea’s relations with the US facing severe obstacles, First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan may have returned to center stage. When the North made its first official response on May 25 to US President Donald Trump’s announcement of the cancellation of the North Korea-US summit, scheduled to be held in Singapore in June 12, its response was signed by Kim, and experts are speculating about the reasons for that. There are wildly different analyses and predictions about Kim’s reappearance. An active representative in North Korea’s negotiations with the US in the 2000s, Kim ended a long silence and returned to the arena of North Korea’s nuclear program and diplomatic relations with the US on May 16. In a public statement, Kim savagely attacked the Libya model to denuclearization proposed by White House National Security Advisor John Bolton. There were various interpretations about his abrupt reappearance. Since the 75-year-old man is reportedly in bad health, some even believed that the statement had only borrowed his name but that he had not been otherwise involved. On the other hand, South Korean government sources say they have heard from North Korean officials that, while Kim Kye-gwan’s activity is limited by his severe arthritis, he sometimes advises North Korean leader Kim Jong-un even now. “Kim Kye-gwan’s reappearance is a big deal. This sends the message that while Kim may not be handling the nuclear negotiations himself – that is left to low-level officials – he is coordinating those negotiations,” said a senior government official shortly after Kim’s statement was released on May 16. Kim’s second statement on May 25 could represent an extension of that trend. “It appears that Kim Kye-gwan will be taking responsibility for North Korea’s future negotiations with the US,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies. Other analysts take a considerably different view of things. “Kim Kye-gwan is the North Korean who bears the greatest responsibility for the current predicament. That’s why he stepped forward and even addressed Choe Son-hui’s May 24 statement,” said a former senior official. According to this official, one of the apparent reasons Kim was selected (probably by Kim Jong-un himself) to present the May 25 statement was because he had been the initial cause inside the North for the “official cancellation” of the June 12 summit, a development that took the North by surprise. Even though President Trump cited the May 24 statement by Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui as the reason for the summit’s cancellation, Choe’s statement was in line with the statement Kim Kye-gwan released on May 16. The two statements not only criticized senior American officials but also repeatedly hinted at the possibility of “reconsidering” the North Korea-US summit. North Korea apparently had Kim Kye-gwan explain that his previous statement and the one by Choi Son-hui represented an emotional backlash but nothing more serious than that. “By bringing back Kim Jong-il’s brinkmanship tactics, Kim Kye-gwan has squandered the image makeover Kim Jong-un has been working on since his New Year’s address. Surely it’s time for him to bow out,” said Cho Sung-ryul, senior research fellow for the Institute for National Security Strategy. By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer, and Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
