S. Korean ambassador to US says high-level talks with N. Korea to be rescheduled soon

South Korean Ambassador to the US Cho Yoon-je

Cho Yoon-je says US is keeping calm and views talks as not canceled but delayed

South Korean Ambassador to the US Cho Yoon-je

Cho Yoon-je, South Korean ambassador to the US, said he expects the high-level talks between North Korea and the US that recently fell through to be “rescheduled soon because both sides are definitely determined to maintain the momentum for dialogue.”

“We also thought it was a shame that the talks fell through, but the US appears to be keeping calm and regarding the talks not as being cancelled but as being delayed,” Cho said during a meeting with South Korean correspondents in Washington, D.C.

“The message sent by North Korea reportedly had to do with the schedule and was phrased courteously. I’m told that the Americans are in contact with North Korea in order to reschedule the meeting,” Cho said.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and director of its United Front Department, were supposed to hold high-level talks in New York on Nov. 8, but the North notified the US that the talks were being delayed on the evening of Nov. 6.

Cho also addressed the proposed second summit between the leaders of North Korea and the US. “Since advisors from the Trump administration have expressed their commitment to holding the second summit early next year, we expect that will happen, too. The South Korean government will be working to enable North Korea and the US to quickly resume their deliberations and, when necessary, it will continue to play the role of a facilitator,” Cho said.

Cho said that “working-level deliberations are underway about the agenda and schedule” of the working group that South Korea and the US agreed to set up to discuss denuclearization, sanctions on North Korea and inter-Korean cooperation. “The group will soon be launched and hold its first meeting,” Cho added.

South Korea and the US are discussing the option of holding the first meeting of the working group when Lee Do-hoon, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs at South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, visits Washington at the beginning of next week for a meeting with Stephen Biegun, the US State Department’s special representative for North Korea policy.

Even though the Democratic Party gained a majority in the House of Representatives in the recent midterm elections in the US, Cho said he expects “there won’t be any major changes right away in the US’ policy toward North Korea.”

“Generally speaking, the US Congress has a tradition of taking a bipartisan and unified approach to foreign policy, and I think the same will be true in policy toward North Korea,” Cho said.

“Since the American press, think tanks and the political opposition do have a tendency to regard North Korean policy through a viewpoint that’s critical of President Trump, we’ll have to keep an eye on the ‘lay of the land’ in Congress,” Cho added.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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