N. Korea says expectations for dialogue with US “gradually disappearing”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (right) inspects a construction site in Yangdok County, South Pyongan Province, on Aug. 31. (Yonhap News)

Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui responds to comments by Pompeo

In response to remarks made by the US’ top diplomat, North Korea said its expectations for bilateral dialogue are “gradually disappearing.”

The remarks suggest that the two countries are still having trouble reaching an understanding about their working-level negotiations.

In a statement released under her own name on Aug. 31, North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui criticized remarks made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a convention of the American Legion on Aug. 27. “We recognized that North Korea’s rogue behavior could not be ignored,” Pompeo said during his speech.

“Pompeo has gone so far in his language and it made the opening of the expected DPRK [North Korea]-US working-level negotiations more difficult,” Choe said.

“Our expectations of dialogue with the US are gradually disappearing and we are being pushed to reexamine all the measures we have taken so far.”

Choe’s remark about “all the measures we have taken so far” appears to be a reference to the measures that North Korea has adopted over the course of its denuclearization talks with the US, which began last year. North Korea has announced the suspension of additional nuclear tests and ICBM test launches as well as the closure of its nuclear test site at Punggye Village and its missile engine testing grounds at Tongchang Village.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho has been expected to attend the United Nations’ 74th General Assembly, which will be held in New York at the end of this month, but he’s apparently leaning toward not going. Diplomatic sources say that North Korea has indicated an ambassador will be delivering its keynote address at the assembly instead of Ri. That basically dashes hopes that Pompeo and Ri would hold high-level talks during the assembly.

North Korea leaders want the nuclear issue to be discussed during a summit between its leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump, and they’re not very fond of Pompeo, who has taken a hardline stance on the issue of sanctions. Choe’s statement was released just eight days after an Aug. 23 statement by Ri that responded to Pompeo’s remarks about “tough sanctions on North Korea” by calling him a “poisonous plant” of American diplomacy.

On Aug. 30, amid the delay in working-level negotiations between the two sides, the US Department of the Treasury slapped sanctions on three shipping companies in Taiwan and Hong Kong and two Taiwanese individuals who are implicated in illegal ship-to-ship transfers with North Korea. The US Treasury explained that the move was part of efforts to implement the existing sanctions regime.

North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui (center) holds a press conference in Pyongyang on Mar. 15. (AP/Yonhap News)

Experts and government officials don’t think working-level negotiations will fall through

Despite repeated indications that North Korea and the US have little trust in each other and are seriously at odds over the concept of denuclearization and the roadmap for getting there, government officials and experts don’t think the working-level negotiations themselves will fall through.

“Choe’s statement is not a positive signal, of course, but I don’t think it represents a rejection of the idea of working-level talks. I think it’s too soon to say whether this means that the working-level talks will take a while to restart or whether they’re about to begin and the North Korea and the US are maneuvering to increase their bargaining power in those talks,” said an official with the South Korean government.

“North Korea isn’t threatening to walk away from the talks; it’s calling on the US to view it as a serious dialogue partner and to build a relationship of trust. That’s the only way it thinks an understanding can be reached in the talks,” explained Lee Gwan-se, director of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University.

“The only way for talks to resume is for US officials to refrain from making comments that provoke North Korea and to be a little more proactive about persuading the North to come to the table for dialogue.”

Diplomatic events scheduled to take place on the Korean Peninsula next week are expected to be a factor in resuming North Korea-US talks.

“We should watch to see whether Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will play a mediating role when he meets Kim Jong-un during his visit to North Korea on Sept. 2-4. It’s true that Pyongyang and Washington are locked in a staring contest, but we should also consider that [the Trump administration] needs to hold a third summit [with North Korea] before the end of the year, given the upcoming presidential election. That suggests that working-level talks could be held in early September,” said Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean Studies.

Furthermore, the South Korean and Russian officials responsible for the North Korean nuclear issue — namely, South Korean Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Lee Do-hoon and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov — will be holding deliberations in Vladivostok on Sept. 3.

By Park Min-hee and Noh Ji-won, staff reporters

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