 |
|
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, US President Donald Trump, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at Freedom House in Panmunjom on June 30.
|
US and N. Korean officials stayed up late discussing security and protocol
Just 32 hours after US President Donald Trump tweeted that he wanted to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Kim and Trump spoke for 52 minutes and met with the South Korean president at Panmunjom on June 30. Some of the factors that played a critical role in enabling this historic and unexpected meeting to be pulled off on such short notice, sources say, were late-night talks between US and North Korean officials about technical matters such as security and protocol, as well as lessons learned from the two inter-Korean summits held at Panmunjom last year. In terms of the agenda, the US emphasis on a “flexible approach” was another key factor. During a meeting with experts in the areas of unification, foreign policy, and security on July 1, a senior official in the South Korean government well-informed about Korean Peninsula affairs — which are currently in rapid flux because of the North Korea-US talks — said that the unexpected bilateral summit and trilateral meeting the previous day hadn’t been planned in advance, according to a diplomatic source. Stephen Biegun, the US State Department’s special representative for North Korea, and Allison Hooker, Korea director for the White House National Security Council, sat down with North Korean officials at Panmunjom on June 29 to discuss protocol and security, but not the issues that currently divide North Korea and the US, , the source said. The talks reportedly began at 8:30 pm and lasted late into the night. “Freedom House [in Panmunjom] had been renovated for the inter-Korean summits that were held on Apr. 27 and May 26 last year. Because of our experience with holding those summits, we were able to arrange this one at short notice despite the US’ rigorous presidential protocol,” the diplomatic source said. Last year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a surprise summit with Kim Jong-un, following their earlier summit, held on Apr. 27 on the South Korean side of Panmunjom. The agenda of Kim and Moon’s summit had a single goal: reversing the temporary cancellation of the North Korea-US summit, which would eventually take place in Singapore on June 12. During the most recent summit, Kim and Trump spoke for nearly an hour at Freedom House, rather than the House of Peace, which is where meetings between leaders are more commonly held. One of the important factors in terms of content was the US’ emphasis on taking a flexible approach, which represents something of a departure from the hardline “all or nothing” stance that it adopted during the second North Korea-US summit, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, at the end of February. “The talk about a ‘flexible approach’ isn’t just for show. While the US’ basic stance doesn’t appear to have changed, it may show a certain degree of flexibility in the actual negotiations. So ‘flexible approach’ reflects such considerations,” the diplomatic source said. Following the abruptly scheduled meeting between the two leaders, sources say that the US government has privately welcomed the shift in authority over the North Korea-US negotiations from what’s called the “United Front Department team,” led by Kim Yong-chol, vice chair of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), to the “Foreign Ministry team,” under Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho. US officials are said to believe that North Korea’s Foreign Ministry has more expertise than the WPK United Front Department in discussing items on the agenda of the North Korean nuclear talks. “The US has high hopes and thinks the talks will move forward briskly,” the diplomatic source said. “Both North Korea and the US share the view that this is a critical opportunity. I think they’re likely to stay focused on the negotiations on the belief that they shouldn’t waste any time.” Seoul places inter-Korean relations on backburner to prioritize N. Korea-US negotiations In a related development, the South Korean government appears to have taken the attitude of prioritizing North Korea-US relations and talks for the time being and allowing inter-Korean relations to lag behind a step or two. While providing active assistance to aid the success of the North Korea-US negotiations, Seoul intends to provide “quiet mediation” behind the scenes. This attitude was evident in Moon’s behavior at Panmunjom on June 30: he was there to greet Kim Jong-un when he crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) into South Korean territory, but then stepped aside to allow Kim and Trump to have a private meeting. “The president’s primary goal is resolving North Korea-US relations. Rather than feeling pressure about the lack of progress in inter-Korean relations, he believes that it’s desirable for North Korea and the US to work out their relationship first and for inter-Korean relations to improve after that. He’s not going to try to make something happen just because the North Korea-US working-level talks are moving forward,” the source said. By Noh Ji-won and Kim Ji-eun, staff reporters Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
