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Blue House Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok meets with US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun at the Blue House on Oct. 29. (provided by the Blue House)
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Discussions likely focused on road and railway projects and business owners’ visit to Kaesong
On Oct. 29, US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun had a one-hour meeting with Blue House Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok, during which the two worked to harmonize the two sides’ positions on inter-Korean cooperation projects. During earlier meetings with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and Lee Do-hoon, South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, Biegun promised that the US would “cooperate closely” with South Korea on improving not only North Korea-US relations but also inter-Korean relations. The meeting between Im and Biegun, which was held at the request of the US, was inherently unusual. While it’s true that Im also chairs a committee charged with implementing inter-Korean summit declarations, matters concerning foreign policy and security, including establishing peace and denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, are in the portfolio of Blue House National Security Office Director Chung Eui-yong. The Blue House explained that Im asked Biegun to bring the North Korea-US talks to a successful conclusion and that Biegun asked the South Korean government for assistance, without providing any details about the meeting. But since a senior government official said that Biegun’s visit to South Korea was focused more on aligning South Korea and the US’s positions than on working-level meetings between North Korea and the US, it would appear that Biegun and Im’s discussion focused on resolving disagreements between South Korea and the US over inter-Korean cooperation projects, including the connection of inter-Korean roads and railways and businesspeople visiting the Kaesong Industrial Complex to inspect their facilities there. Such trends in the US government may have played a role in Biegun’s surprising visit to Seoul so soon after holding deliberations in Washington just last week with Lee Do-hoon, observers say. In a related story, Biegun met with Kang Kyung-wha on Monday morning for 45 minutes, longer than the 30 minutes that had originally been scheduled. Kang dedicated a considerable amount of time not only to hearing from Biegun about progress in North Korea-US relations, including the high-level talks and working-level talks, but also to sharing opinions about progress in inter-Korean relations, and she reportedly expressed her agreement with the need for close communication and cooperation between South Korea and the US. The urgent inter-Korean cooperation projects that the two sides need to discuss include tenant business owners visiting the Kaesong Complex and linking South and North Korea’s roads and railways. South Korea and the US are reportedly putting considerable weight on bilateral cooperation on matters including asking the UN Security Council to provide an exemption from sanctions for inter-Korean cooperation projects such as the inter-Korean joint survey of the Gyeongui (Seoul-Sinuiju) and East Sea railroads and a groundbreaking ceremony before the end of the year. Biegun continued related discussions during meetings with Chung Eui-yong and Minister of Unification Cho Myoung-gyon on the afternoon of Oct. 30. Cho addressed this issue during a parliamentary audit of the Unification Ministry at the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee on Monday. In regard to the issue of the joint survey of the Gyeongui line, Cho said, “The US isn’t at the point where it’s expressing opposition to inter-Korean projects. We’re in a rather cooperative phase in which we’re continuing our discussions with the US.” Cho did acknowledge that “there are some areas where our ideas are somewhat different from the Americans.” In connection with the issue of denuclearization, Biegun said during his meeting with Lee Do-hoon that the US is completely certain that the goal of North Korea’s final, fully verified denuclearization is capable of being realized. Just when concerns are being raised that the North Korea-US negotiations are at an impasse, an official involved in North Korea-US working level talks has expressed his optimism about those negotiations. By Noh Ji-won and Kim Bo-hyeop, staff reporters Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
