U.S. Special Representative Sung Kim met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Kim Gunn and Funakoshi Takehiro, after a U.S. assessment that the North was preparing its Punggye-ri test site for what would be its seventh nuclear test.

“We are preparing for all contingencies in close coordination with our Japanese and ROK allies,” Kim said at the beginning of the meeting, referring to South Korea by the initials of its official name, the Republic of Korea.

This year, North Korea has tested several ballistic missiles, including one thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, in violation of U.N. sanctions. read more

“We want to make clear to the DPRK that its unlawful and destabilizing activities have consequences and that the international community will not accept these actions as normal,” the U.S. envoy said, referring to North Korea.

South Korea’s newly appointed nuclear envoy, Kim Gunn, said North Korea’s “relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons will only end up strengthening our deterrence”.

“The course that Pyongyang is currently embarking on has only one inevitable destination: reduce security for North Korea itself,” the South Korean diplomat said.

Last week, the United States called for more U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile launches, but China and Russia vetoed the suggestion, publicly splitting the U.N. Security Council on North Korea for the first time since it started punishing it in 2006, when it conducted its first nuclear test. read more

Japan’s Funakoshi stressed the need for coordination, vowing to “enhance regional deterrence, including trilateral security cooperation”.

The officials said the door for dialogue was open and expressed concern over the COVID-19 situation in North Korea.

Earlier, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said the United States would not link humanitarian aid for North Korea as it battles COVID to denuclearization.

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Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi, Dogyun Kim and Daewoung Kim; Editing by Robert Birsel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us-south-korea-japan-envoys-meet-north-korea-nuclear-tension-2022-06-03/

The post U.S., South Korea, Japan envoys meet on North Korea nuclear tension first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hold a signing ceremony at the conclusion of their summit at the Capella Hotel on the resort island of Sentosa, Singapore on June 12, 2018.Jonathan Ernst / Reuters file

WASHINGTON — China has steadily loosened restrictions on trade with North Korea in recent months, undercutting President Donald Trump’s effort to exert economic pressure on Kim Jong Un’s regime, former U.S. officials and independent experts told NBC News.

From coal shipments to revived construction projects to planes ferrying Chinese tourists to Pyongyang, China has reopened the door to both legal and illegal trade with the North, throwing the North Korean government a vital lifeline while derailing U.S. diplomacy. North Korea depends almost entirely on its larger neighbor to keep its economy afloat.

The increase in trade can be traced back to March, when the White House stunned Beijing by announcing plans for Trump to hold an unprecedented meeting with the North Korean dictator. Fearing a loss of influence with its often recalcitrant ally, China invited Kim to three successive summits in China, in March, May and June.

While China rolled out the red carpet for Kim, Beijing’s enforcement of U.N. sanctions began to soften and its limits on legal commerce also eased, according to regional analysts who track cross-border trade, foreign diplomats and former U.S. officials. As a result, the White House’s bid to impose “maximum pressure” on North Korea, in hopes of pushing the regime to abandon its nuclear and missile program, has been dealt a severe blow.

“The Trump administration’s much vaunted maximum pressure is now at best minimal pressure,” said Daniel Russel, a former senior State Department official who oversaw China policy. “And that means a huge loss of leverage.”

Trump’s rush to meet with Kim — before U.S. and North Korean officials had time to hammer out a clear agenda or commitments from Pyongyang — doomed a relatively united international front against the North that had been painstakingly assembled, Russel and other former officials said.

Now it could be almost impossible to reconstitute the pressure campaign. Apart from China’s reluctance, South Korea’s progressive Prime Minister Moon Jae-in is openly promoting economic engagement with the North and does not share Washington’s preference for strangling the regime’s trade prospects.

The shift is evident at the Chinese port of Longkou, where North Korean cargo ships have been spotted pulling into coal docks, according to data obtained by NBC News from Windward, a firm that uses commercial satellites and other data to track maritime traffic. At least 29 North Korean cargo vessels visited the coal docks in May and June. Prior to that no North Korean ships had paid a visit to the port since January.

Traffic has picked up on the border bridge to the Chinese city of Dandong, a main artery for North Korea. Small trucks carrying coal have been photographed moving across the border bridge, according to NK Pro, a specialist website that focuses exclusively on North Korea.

Coal is a crucial source of revenue for Pyongyang and U.N. sanctions bar North Korea from shipping coal to China or elsewhere.

There are other signs of an economic thaw.

Gasoline prices in North Korea, which had soared as China squeezed fuel supplies last year, have steadily dropped since March. The Trump administration has blasted North Korea for skirting sanctions by obtaining oil at sea, conducting at least 89 ship-to-ship transfers of fuel.

The unofficial exchange rate for the euro in North Korea also shot up in the winter of this year as sanctions began to bite, but the rate came back down by June and July, NK Pro reported. The rate rose to 10,000 North Korean won to one euro in February, and has now returned to about 8,000:1.

North Korea also appears to be defying U.N. sanctions adopted in December 2017 that prohibit it from selling fishing rights in its waters. Starting in May, maritime data has shown an increase in foreign fishing vessels in North Korea’s exclusive economic zone, Lucas Kuo, an analyst at C4ADS, told NBC News.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Workers’ Party of Korea headquarters in Pyongyang on May 8, 2018.KCNA via KNS / Getty Images file

Construction activity has resumed in the North Korean capital, analysts said, and workers and heavy machinery have returned to a joint bridge project between the Chinese town of Tumen and the North Korean town of Namyang. The site had gone quiet last year and into the first quarter of 2018, experts at NK Pro reported.

Chinese tourism, which is not banned under U.N. sanctions and has provided a valuable source of hard currency, had dramatically dropped off as Beijing scaled back passenger flights and suspended most travel tours. But tourism has surged since June, after Air China resumed full service to North Korea and Beijing authorities lifted restrictions on travel tours, experts said.

Passenger flights to the capital are regularly sold out and expanded train service must be booked at least two weeks in advance due to the high demand. The rise in visitors has caused delays for some tour groups at Chinese customs offices at the border and the North Koreans have struggled to mobilize tour guides to accommodate the thousands of tourists coming by train and plane, according to NK Pro and other analysts. North Korea has even opened a tourist office in Taiwan.

“Those tourists are a serious money-maker for North Korea, and also an important political signal,” said Russel, now at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “It’s a signal to anybody who has business interests with North Korea that there’s plenty of room to maneuver now.”

Trump, who once boasted his talks with Kim had eliminated the regime’s nuclear threat, complained last month that China was “not helping” with North Korea. His secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, have called on other countries to crack down on sanctions-busting, citing smuggling by sea and overland borders.

“When sanctions are not enforced, the prospects for successful denuclearization are diminished,” Pompeo said in July.

But the administration has mostly steered clear of publicly condemning China, defended its diplomacy with Pyongyang as successful so far and played down the idea that the sanctions regime is unraveling.

“We have not seen significant changes in the strength with which the international community is enforcing sanctions on North Korea,” a U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told NBC News. “Trade may go up, but the enforcement of sanctions, that remains.”

The Trump administration declined to comment on the record.

Dismayed by North Korea’s barrage of missile and nuclear tests, China last year backed the U.S.-led effort to impose “maximum pressure” on Pyongyang. The Chinese supported the sanctions partly out of concern over Trump’s threats of military action, the so-called “bloody nose” option. But those threats have receded amid a potential detente with Pyongyang. Meanwhile, the U.S. president has since launched a trade war with China, with both governments imposing tariffs on a vast array of goods amid threats to impose more.

Despite Trump’s olive branch to Kim, North Korea has taken no concrete steps to fulfill Washington’s demands to provide a full inventory of its nuclear arsenal, permit a verification of its capabilities or agree to a timeline to dismantle its weapons. But Kim secured the suspension of a U.S. military exercise, the relaxation of sanctions enforcement by China, reduced the likelihood of a preemptive U.S. military strike and forged a dialogue with South Korea for possible economic cooperation.

Victor Cha, a former senior diplomat who was at the negotiating table more than a decade ago the last time the United States tried to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, said Kim has come out ahead after his summit with Trump.

The North Koreans “are getting everything they want right now,” said Cha, currently a professor at Georgetown University.

The regime has bought itself more time to advance its missile and nuclear technology, he said. “The status quo is great for them.”

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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Diplomats from the United States and North Korea alternately shook hands and lobbed critiques at one another Saturday, in what appeared to be another roadblock in the path to negotiations aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.

In a day of head-snapping twists of tone at the annual conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Russia not to help North Korea cheat on U.N. sanctions that Moscow had voted for.

Then, just a few short hours later, Pompeo and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho approached each other for a public handshake and exchanged promising pleasantries with big smiles. According to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, Pompeo suggested they would talk soon, and Ri agreed, adding, “There are many productive conversations to be had.”

Nauert said that beyond the brief exchange at the group photo, Pompeo and Ri did not have a more formal meeting. Given where the United States and North Korea were a year ago, Nauert said, “This is a step in the right direction.”

As the two top diplomats returned to their seats, Sung Kim, the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, approached Ri and handed him a white envelope bearing a letter from President Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

While the full contents were unknown, Pompeo tweeted later Saturday that the letter was Trump’s reply to a missive the president received from Kim last week, which White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Saunders characterized as a “follow-up” to their June summit in Singapore. In his own tweet, Trump described Kim’s letter as “nice,” breezily adding, “I look forward to seeing you soon!”

But things at the Singapore conference went downhill after Pompeo departed for Indonesia: Ri waited until then to deliver a sharp attack on the United States in remarks at the forum.

Though he said the North Korean government remains committed to a joint statement that followed a summit between Trump and Kim in June, Ri criticized the White House for insisting on maintaining sanctions until disarmament is complete and demanded “confidence-building” measures along the way.

“What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the U.S. to go back to the old, far from its leader’s intention,” Ri said.

The divergent rhetoric underscored the difficulties that have hampered previous attempts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs. It also was reminiscent of Pompeo’s last visit to North Korea in July, when he declared the meetings “productive” but North Korea hours later would say the U.S. approach was “gangster-like.”

Previous negotiators have seen similar rapid-fire mood swings from Pyongyang. This is just North Korea’s style of negotiating and indicates any talks would probably take many months, if not years.

Pompeo has acknowledged talks will be difficult and drawn out, but he said Saturday that he remains optimistic that eventually the two sides can reach a deal to end the North’s nuclear weapons program.

Pyongyang’s willingness to truly denuclearize has come into question lately. A confidential report by the United Nations, shown to reporters Friday, says North Korea has violated numerous U.N. Security Council sanctions by continuing to develop its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Also last week came news reports that intelligence agencies believe the North is developing new missiles.

[U.S. spy agencies: North Korea is working on new missiles]

Much of the discord stems from differences in how Washington and Pyongyang view the pace of rewards to North Korea if it proceeds dismantling its weapons programs. Pompeo has insisted that the United States expects total denuclearization and that sanctions will remain in place until the process is complete. North Korea, officially named the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), has demanded a phased approach, with sanctions eased in several steps as a show of goodwill.

“Confidence is not a sentiment to be cultivated overnight,” Ri said in his remarks after Pompeo’s departure. “In order to build full confidence between the DPRK and the U.S., it is essential for both sides to take simultaneous actions and phased steps to do what is possible one after another.”

Ri added: “Only when the U.S. ensures that we feel comfortable with and come close to it will we be able to open our minds to the U.S. and show it in action.”

An administration official brushed off the remarks as growing pains in a still-developing relationship that has been wobbly at times.

“This is to be expected,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the criticism frankly. “We’re building a relationship with North Korea after years of difficult relations.”

Pompeo used the ASEAN conference to hold meetings with diplomats from more than two dozen countries to urge their governments to keep up the economic pressure on Pyongyang until its nuclear weapons program is irreversibly dismantled.

At a news conference, Pompeo noted reports that Russia was entering into joint ventures with companies in the North and granted new work permits to North Korean guest workers. He said the United States considers the reports, first published in the Wall Street Journal, to be accurate and as such would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution restricting trade with North Korea.

“I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something that we will discuss with Moscow,” he said.

“We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea. Any violation that detracts from the world’s goal of finally, fully denuclearizing North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously.”

Despite the carping, the tone was considered a major improvement over last year, when the buzz of the ASEAN meeting was whether Pompeo’s predecessor, Rex Tillerson, would even be in the same room with North Korea’s foreign minister.

This year, in his first visit as secretary of state, Pompeo has been at the forefront of talks with North Korea aimed at its eventual denuclearization.

“From my meetings here, the world is united in seeing this achieved,” Pompeo told reporters. “There has not been single country that hasn’t thanked the United States for its efforts in moving the world toward the possibility of achieving this. . . . I’m optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline, and the world will celebrate what the U.N. Security Council has demanded.”

That view seemed to be supported by a communique expected from the ASEAN diplomats, who, along with representatives of Japan and South Korea, urged Washington and Pyongyang to “continue working towards the realization of lasting peace and stability on a denuclearized Korean Peninsula,” according to a draft seen by the Associated Press.

Earlier Saturday, Pompeo suggested that the timeline for denuclearization will be determined in large part by North Korea’s mercurial leader.

“The ultimate timeline for denuclearization will be set by Chairman Kim, at least in part,” he said in an interview with Channel NewsAsia. “The decision is his. He made a commitment, and we’re very hopeful that over the coming weeks and months we can make substantial progress towards that and put the North Korean people on a trajectory towards a brighter future very quickly.”

Pompeo started the morning with a rosy tweet, saying he had had productive discussions on North Korea with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. China is responsible for the lion’s share of trade across North Korea’s border.

“Our cooperation,” he tweeted, “. . . sends a strong signal to the region that, despite differences, #China and the US can work together to get important work done.”

[China is still North Korea’s most important ally]

Despite the United States’ growing trade war with China, there was a palpable sense of relief that the tensions of last year appeared to have eased considerably.

The Southeast Asian region is “quite happy to see how the events on the Korean Peninsula are turning out, especially compared to last year, which was a really worrying time,” said Dino Patti Djalal, a former Indonesian ambassador to the United States who led a delegation to Pyongyang for informal talks. “There was a real threat of clashes and talk of preemptive strikes.”

Things are “exceptionally much better” now, he added, and the region “welcomes this development and thinks the momentum should be kept.”

Apart from urging continued support for being tough on Pyongyang, Pompeo’s three-day trip to Asia is part of a U.S. effort to boost trade ties with the region, despite the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

Pompeo pledged on Saturday to provide nearly $300 million in new security funding for Southeast Asia. He said it would be used to strengthen maritime security, develop humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping capabilities, and counter “transnational threats.”

On Monday, Pompeo said the United States would invest $113 million in technology, energy and infrastructure initiatives in the region as part of what he characterized as “a down payment on a new era of U.S. economic commitment to the region.”

Read more:

Despite reports to the contrary, Trump says he’s ‘very happy’ with North Korea

Pompeo pushes back against North Korea’s ‘gangster-like’ criticism

U.S. hopes to resume joint field operations with North Korea to find war remains

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pompeo-cautions-russia-not-to-violate-un-sanctions-on-north-korea/2018/08/04/022afc2c-97a6-11e8-80e1-00e80e1fdf43_story.html?noredirect=on

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