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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at Andrews Air Force Base before his departure to Europe on May 5. (AP/Yonhap News)
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US continues to show restrained response to N. Korea’s short-range missile launch
The US is showing a restrained response to North Korea’s short-range missile launch on May 4, while sending strong signals that it wants dialogue. The Donald Trump administration appears to have opted for a diplomatic resolution rather than ignoring North Korea’s actions or matching it with its own show of strength. “We want to continue these conversations,” US Secretary of State Pompeo said on May 5, while stressing that the North Korean short-range missiles were not intermediate or long-range missiles or ICBMs. His comments echoed a tweet the previous day by Trump, who reiterated his trust in North Korean leader Kim Jong-un while holding the door open for dialogue. In appearances on the Fox News, ABC, and CBS networks that day, Pompeo said that efforts were still under way to obtain precise data on the missiles launched by North Korea over the East Sea. Stressing to Fox News that the launches “were of a short range,” he added, “We have high confidence that they were not intermediate-range missiles, that they were not long-range missiles or intercontinental missiles.” “[A]t no point was there ever any international boundary crossed [by a missile]. That is, they landed in the water east of North Korea and didn’t present a threat to the United States or to South Korea or Japan,” Pompeo also said on ABC. When asked whether the North had violated its own moratorium on missile testing, Pompeo answered, “The moratorium was focused [. . .] on intercontinental missile systems, the ones that threaten the United States for sure.” His response stressed that the launches were far from a threat to the US or violation of its pledge. Similarly, Trump avoided directly mentioning North Korean “projectiles” or “missiles” in his tweet the day before. At the same time, Pompeo stressed Washington’s commitment to dialogue in clear vocabulary. “We want to put it in the larger context. We still have every intention of negotiating a good resolution with North Korea to get them to denuclearize,” he said. “We still believe that there is an opportunity to get a negotiated outcome where we get fully verified denuclearization. Chairman Kim has repeated that,” he also noted. “And so we hope that this act that he took over the weekend won’t get in the way,” he added. “We want to get back at the table. We want to continue to have these conversations,” he said. On CBS, Pompeo said the US planned to “exhaust every diplomatic opportunity there is.” He additionally mentioned a conversation he had had the evening before with Trump. “I think President Trump understands that the path forward that is the most optimal for the entire world is a negotiated solution to this,” he said. “We are full speed ahead in trying to work with the North Koreans to diplomatically achieve the verified denuclearization on the peninsula,” he continued. His remarks sent a clear message that he planned to focus on a diplomatic resolution rather than escalating military tensions. In his tweet the day before, Trump said that Kim “knows that I am with him” and “does not want to break his promise to me,” while predicting that a “deal will happen.” Pompeo also said the US had “communicated with the North Koreans post-Hanoi.” “We hope that they can become in the coming weeks [. . .] even more robust communications where we can really have conversations about how the path will move forward,” he added. The call for dialogue has been a consistent message from the US administration since the collapse of the second North Korea-US summit in late February. But the remarks from Trump and Pompeo have become more explicit in the wake of North Korea’s missile launch – in an apparent bid to prevent the situation from deteriorating further as North Korea takes additional military action. Message to rejoin dialogue with US after Vladivostok summit Pompeo also stressed that sanctions against North Korea “continue to be enforced.” “These launches took place just after [Kim] met with Vladimir Putin,” he noted, adding that the North Korean leader clearly had “not yet been able to get precisely what he wanted” from Russia. These remarks too sent a message calling on North Korea to rejoin dialogue with the US that could lead to sanctions relief. It remains to be seen how long the US’ restrained approach and calls for dialogue will last. Hardline views in the US could become a factor if a ballistic missile was among the short-range projectiles launched. It is also unclear whether North Korea, which has been demanding a change in attitude from the US, will be persuaded to return to negotiations by a propose amounting to “let’s talk.” South Korea and the US appear likely to hold focused discussions of the North Korean missile issue and ideas for resuming North Korea-US dialogue during a South Korea visit on May 9–10 by State Department Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun. Regarding the possibility of sending food and other humanitarian aid to the North as a means of resuming dialogue, Pompeo said in his ABC interview that it was “permissible for humanitarian assistance – that is, that sanctions permit the North Koreans to purchase food products.” By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
