[Reporter’s notebook] The dangerous consequences of careless remarks

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui. (Yonhap News)

Choe Son-hui and John Bolton are worsening the current situation with their harsh language

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui. (Yonhap News)

According to an old Korean proverb, words are like seeds – these have consequences. This means much the same as the Chinese proverb about calamity coming out of the mouth. These epigrams ought to be borne in mind after the North Korea-US summit in Hanoi.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump are striving to keep the situation under control. That’s why the two countries haven’t butted heads despite their failure to reach an agreement in the summit. The problem is the harsh language of several of their advisors, namely North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and White House National Security Advisor John Bolton. They make pointed remarks that really don’t need to be said. I’m worried that they’re going to capsize the leaky boat of diplomacy as it sails toward peace on the Korean Peninsula.

While expressing North Korea’s first official viewpoint after the summit was halted, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho emphasized that Kim and Trump had exercised “admirable patience and restraint.” That’s true. Kim was quoted as saying that he and Trump had agreed “to stay closely linked and continue productive dialogue in the future” on the front page of the Mar. 1 edition of the Rodong Sinmun. And during a press conference shortly after the summit, Trump said that he has a “very strong” relationship with Kim and that “eventually we’ll get there.” The message here is that the door isn’t being shut for negotiations.

But then Choe Son-hui said, “I don’t think we’ll need to continue this kind of dialogue.” This wasn’t an official announcement that negotiations were being suspended. It was a “personal impression.” The message here was ambiguous, and highly provocative. This was an unnecessary comment at a sensitive time.

Bolton, who’s regarded as an ultra-hardliner, said during an appearance on Fox News on Mar. 3 that “The program of maximum pressure will continue and I think have a real impact on Kim Jong-un.” In contrast with Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Bolton didn’t even refer to Kim by the respectful title of “chairman.” It’s unprofessional for a senior aide to refer to the leader of another country – a leader who one’s own president has praised as a “fine leader” – by name without any title. Either that, or it’s a crafty provocation.

Back in May 2018, Choe and Bolton were the ones who nearly torpedoed the first summit in Singapore. In a statement, Choe criticized Bolton and Vice President Mike Pence by name for their advocacy of the Libya model and threatened a “nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.” Immediately afterward, Trump issued an open letter canceling the summit because of “the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement.”

Bolton is someone the North Koreans really don’t want to work with; North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-kwan even said in a statement that he “can’t conceal his repugnance” for the man. After being canceled, the Singapore summit was barely revived by an emergency statement issued by Kim Kye-kwan on May 25, 2018, stating that the North was willing “to sit with the US side to solve [the] problem regardless of ways at any time” and by an abrupt summit held by Moon and Kim at Panmunjom on May 26, 2018.

The bomb throwers in North Korea and the US need to consider why diplomats are called alchemists of language. The lives of the 80 million people living on the Korean Peninsula are too precious for them to keep running their mouths.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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