N. Korea and US to hold working-level negotiations in late September

North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui. (Hankyoreh Archives)

Pyongyang’s first vice foreign minister releases statement confirming “willingness” to discussions

North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui. (Hankyoreh Archives)

North Korea and the US announced that they will be holding working-level negotiations toward the end of September.

“We have willingness to sit with the US side for comprehensive discussions of the issues we have so far taken up at the time and place to be agreed late in September,” North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said in a statement issued by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“I gave heed to the recent repeated remarks of high-ranking US officials leading the negotiations with the DPRK [North Korea] that they are ready for the DPRK-US working negotiation,” Choe said in the statement. “I believe that the US side will come out with a proposal geared to the interests of the DPRK and the US and based on the calculation method acceptable to us.”

Choe’s statement represents an abrupt attitude change for North Korea, just three days after Stephen Biegun, the US State Department’s special representative for North Korea, addressed North Korea during a speech at the University of Michigan on Sept. 6. In that speech, Biegun reiterated that the US is “prepared to engage as soon as we hear from [North Korea],” mentioned the possibility of reviewing its strategy of keeping American troops on the Korean Peninsula, and said that US President Donald Trump is “fully committed to making significant progress” on negotiations with North Korea “in the year ahead.”

In recent weeks, North Korea has been expressing pessimism about reopening working-level talks with the US anytime soon. In a statement on Aug. 23, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho attacked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for being a “poisonous plant” in American diplomacy and for obstructing North Korea-US negotiations, while Choe herself said in a statement on Aug. 31 that North Korean “expectations of dialogue with the US are gradually disappearing” and said that Pyongyang would be keeping an eye on the US’ intentions.

North Korea’s abrupt attitude change appears to be the result of positive calls for dialogue made recently not only by Biegun, the chief American envoy to its negotiations with the North, but also by more senior officials both before and after Biegun’s speech. Trump said on Sept. 4 that the US does not seek regime change in North Korea, and Pompeo observed on Sept. 6 that every country has the right to defend itself.

“Kim Jong-un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission, clarified his [stance] at the historic Policy Speech in April that it is essential for the US to quit its current calculation method and approach us with [a] new one and we will wait for a bold decision from the US with patience till the end of this year. I think the US has since had enough time to find the calculation method that it can share with us,” Choe added in her statement.

Choe’s statement ended on an ominous note, however. “If the US side fingers again the worn-out scenario which has nothing to do with the new calculation method at the DPRK-US working negotiation to be held with so much effort, the DPRK-US dealings may come to an end.”

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

Please direct comments or questions to [[e-mail]]