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US President Donald Trump responds to reporters’ questions regarding working level talks with North Korea at the White House on July 22. (Reuters/Yonhap News)
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Calls on Kim Jong-un to fulfill his promise to denuclearize
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated that the US would provide North Korea with a security guarantee, such as a non-aggression pact, if it denuclearizes. Considering that the North has been showing considerable interest in a security guarantee as of late, the US appears to be making reassuring overtures in an attempt to bring Pyongyang to the working-level negotiations. “The North Koreans have to go fill the promise that Chairman Kim made. He promised that he would denuclearize his country. He did so publicly in a written document; he said so to President Trump. He has told me that half a dozen times personally,” Pompeo said in an interview with a radio program called iHeartMedia on July 22. “They have to make a decision that they’re prepared to go execute that,” Pompeo went on to say. “In exchange for that, President Trump’s been very clear,” Pompeo said, outlining two potential rewards. First, “We’re prepared to provide a set of security arrangements that gives them comfort that if they disband their nuclear program, that the United States won’t attack them in the absence of that.” “Second, a brighter future for the North Korean people. That’s the outlines of the agreement that Chairman Kim and President Trump have made. We now need the North Korean negotiators to begin to build out on those principles that the two leaders have set forward.” A security guarantee and a non-aggression pact are measures that the US has promised North Korea it would take since last year. When Trump was asked on May 17, 2018, before his first summit with the North in Singapore, whether he would provide a security guarantee to Kim, Trump said he’d be happy to do so and that the Kim would receive very powerful protection. “We are not going to invade North Korea. We are not seeking to topple the North Korean regime,” said Stephen Biegun, the US State Department’s special representative for North Korea, during a speech at Stanford University on Jan. 31, leading up to the second North Korea-US summit in Hanoi. And during a press interview on July 12, following the North Korea-US summit at Panmunjom on June 30, Pompeo said that the US would “make sure that the security assurances that [the North Koreans] need are in place.” US reconfirmation of security guarantee a move to bring N. Korea to negotiating table One notable point is that Pompeo’s remarks on Monday came after the delay of the North Korea-US working-level negotiations, which Pompeo himself had said would take place in mid-July. Amid expectations that the working-level negotiations will be delayed until after South Korea-US joint exercise in August to which North Korea has expressed opposition, the US’ reconfirmation of its promise for regime security appears to be aimed at pushing the North to make a bold decision on denuclearization. When asked about the schedule for the working-level talks by reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump said that the US had been exchanging some encouraging messages with North Korea and that the meeting would take place when the North Koreans were ready. Trump’s remarks indicate that North Korea hasn’t provided the US with a satisfactory response. He didn’t specify the level or format of the messages that had been exchanged. “We hope that the working-level discussions will begin in a couple of weeks,” Pompeo said, adding that he hopes the North Koreans will adopt a different stance when they show up at the negotiations. Pompeo appeared to be calling on North Korea to agree to a definition about the end state of denuclearization and on the roadmap for getting there. By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
