US-North Korea talks - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org Let No Man Take Your Crown Thu, 21 Nov 2019 01:35:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cropped-Screen-Shot-2024-05-16-at-1.06.13-PM-32x32.png US-North Korea talks - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org 32 32 US asks North Korea to ‘seize the moment’ on talks https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/us-asks-north-korea-to-seize-the-moment-on-talks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=us-asks-north-korea-to-seize-the-moment-on-talks Wed, 20 Nov 2019 01:23:36 +0000 http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/?p=29733 WASHINGTON: The US envoy on North Korea acknowledged on Wednesday (Nov 20) that Pyongyang has not yet taken verifiable action to denuclearize and called on the regime to “seize the moment.” Stephen Biegun, testifying to Congress on his nomination to be deputy secretary of state, also called for North Korea to step up its level...

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]]> WASHINGTON: The US envoy on North Korea acknowledged on Wednesday (Nov 20) that Pyongyang has not yet taken verifiable action to denuclearize and called on the regime to “seize the moment.”

Stephen Biegun, testifying to Congress on his nomination to be deputy secretary of state, also called for North Korea to step up its level of representation in talks.

“There is no meaningful or verifiable evidence that North Korea has yet made the choice to denuclearize,” Biegun told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“We still believe that Pyongyang can make this choice,” he said. “The window is still open, but they need to seize the moment.”

President Donald Trump has met three times with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has pledged to him to work to end his nuclear program.

While Trump has voiced admiration for Kim and said he believes he has his word, North Korea has carried out a series of rocket launches that have notably alarmed Japan.

Biegun last month met with a North Korean delegation in Sweden but said he has “yet to engage with an empowered negotiator across the table.”

He said that he would like to meet the North’s vice foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, saying she had Kim’s confidence and would be his counterpart.

Biegun said that Choe would be able to “sit across the table from me and make decisions about how we implement the vision that the two leaders agreed to in Singapore,” the first summit between Trump and Kim in June 2018.

A veteran Republican foreign policy expert who worked for years in Congress, Biegun appeared likely to be confirmed by the Senate.

Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the committee, said that the nomination had “even greater significance” as Biegun stands to become “acting secretary of state for quite some time.”

Menendez was pointing to growing expectations that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will resign in the coming months to run for Senate in his home state of Kansas.

Biegun was named to replace Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, who has been named an ambassador to Russia.

Source: AFP/de

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/us-asks-north-korea-to-seize-the-moment-on-talks-12112652

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]]> South Korea reveals plan to break stalemate in US-North Korea talks https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/south-korea-reveals-plan-to-break-stalemate-in-us-north-korea-talks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=south-korea-reveals-plan-to-break-stalemate-in-us-north-korea-talks Wed, 03 Oct 2018 04:00:45 +0000 http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/?p=7392 South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hold their hands together after watching the mass games performance of “The Glorious Country” at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. PYONGYANG PRESS CORPS POOL South Korea is proposing that the United States hold off on a demand...

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South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hold their hands together after watching the mass games performance of “The Glorious Country” at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018.

PYONGYANG PRESS CORPS POOL

South Korea is proposing that the United States hold off on a demand for an inventory of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and accept the verified closure of a key North Korean nuclear facility as a next step in the negotiations, Seoul’s top diplomat said in an interview with The Washington Post.

The plan is designed to break the impasse between North Korea and the United States as President Trump comes under mounting pressure to demonstrate progress on the denuclearization talks. It will be one of the options available to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as he arrives in North Korea on Sunday to restart negotiations.

In exchange for the verified dismantlement of the Yongbyon nuclear facility, the United States would declare an end to the Korean War, a key demand of Pyongyang that U.S. officials have been reluctant to make absent a major concession by North Korea.

“What North Korea has indicated is they will permanently dismantle their nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, which is a very big part of their nuclear program,” South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said during a discussion at the South Korean mission to the United Nations. “If they do that in return for America’s corresponding measures, such as the end-of-war declaration, I think that’s a huge step forward for denuclearization.”

Sustained fighting in the Korean War ended with a truce in 1953, but a formal peace treaty has never been signed. In recent weeks, North Korea has demanded almost daily that the United States sign an end-of-war declaration.

U.S. negotiators have tried to get North Korea to provide a list of nuclear facilities and weapons they want dismantled but failed to secure an agreement even after Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore and three trips to North Korea by Pompeo.

On Tuesday, North Korea’s state-run broadcaster again called the demands for a nuclear inventory “rubbish.”

Kang said demanding a list at the outset risks bogging down the negotiations in a subsequent dispute over verification. As an example, she cited the deterioration of negotiations between North Korea and the George W. Bush administration after Pyongyang handed over thousands of pages of documents on its main plutonium-related facilities in 2008.

“The past experience shows that the list and the verification about the list takes a lot of back and forth, and I think the last time things broke down precisely as we were working out a detailed protocol on verification after we had gotten the list . . . We want to take a different approach” she said.

Stressing the importance of stopping the further production of nuclear materials at the Yongbyon facility, she added: “We will have to see an inventory at some point, but that some point can be reached more expeditiously by action and corresponding measures that give the two sides sufficient trust.”

Whether Seoul can persuade Washington to take up the proposed bargain remains to be seen. The State Department declined to comment on its willingness to delay demands for an inventory or declare an end to the Korean War.

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Hawks inside the Trump administration, in particular national security adviser John Bolton, remain skeptical of signing such a declaration out of fear that it will give North Korea and China justification to demand the removal of the 28,500 U.S. forces stationed in South Korea, people close to Bolton said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations.

Kang downplayed concerns about the declaration, emphasizing that it would be a purely “political” document and “not a legally binding treaty.”

Trump, according to diplomats familiar with the negotiations, is open to signing the declaration and may not be bothered by ensuing demands about U.S. forces given his long-standing complaint that the United States pays far too much to station troops in East Asia.

Analysts briefed on South Korea’s proposal offered mixed assessments.

“If the Yongbyon shutdown proves to be the first bite of the apple, it might be an OK starting point, but if it proves to be the only bite of the apple, it will be deeply unsatisfying – and totally reversible,” said Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Duyeon Kim, a Korea expert with the Center for a New American Security, said the closure of Yongbyon would be a “welcome” and “tangible” step but noted that North Korea would still be able to expand its nuclear arsenal and fissile material production at covert facilities elsewhere in the country.

“It’s unrealistic to expect a comprehensive, completely accurate list from the get-go, but the administration should still insist that Pyongyang at least disclose all fuel-cycle-related facilities anywhere in the country,” she said.

On Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo would arrive in North Korea on Sunday but gave few details about the status of the negotiations. “Obviously these conversations are going in the right direction and we feel confident enough to hop on a plane to head there to continue the conversations,” she said.

The U.S. outlook on the negotiations has been difficult to surmise as Trump hails major accomplishments going on behind closed doors, while Pyongyang falls short of key U.S. demands, including providing its understanding of denuclearization and the number of weapons and amount of bomb fuel it has.

“If you saw what’s going on behind the scenes, I think you’d be very impressed,” Trump said last week. “I’ve received two letters from Chairman Kim . . . They’re letters that are magnificent in the sense of his feeling for wanting to get this done.”

North Korea has already signaled that it may drive a hard bargain during Pompeo’s fourth visit. Despite calling for the end-of-war declaration, the Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that the document “can never be a bargaining chip for getting the DPRK denuclearized” and that the United States must ease economic sanctions before North Korea takes steps.

“If the U.S. doesn’t want the end of war, the DPRK will also not particularly hope for it,” the news agency said in a commentary.

The North has also given Pompeo’s new special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, the cold shoulder, said U.S. officials, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks. Last month, Pompeo publicly invited Pyongyang to meet with Biegun in Vienna at the “earliest opportunity,” but the request went unanswered and the North has yet to name a counterpart for Biegun, they said.

Kang, South Korea’s first female foreign minister, is trying to build momentum behind the U.S.-North Korea talks despite international skepticism that Kim is willing to surrender his nuclear arsenal.

In the process, she and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have fended off allegations of naivete from Japanese and American counterparts who say their belief in dialogue blinds them to Kim’s deceptive nature.

Kang said her government has no illusions about the nature of the Kim dynasty, a fact that guides her thinking on negotiating tactics.

“We know North Korea better than any party in this process,” she said. “We are as keen and perhaps as committed as anybody on getting to complete denuclearization . . . Naivete is certainly not something that would characterize my government’s approach to North Korea.”

Moon, a former human rights lawyer, and Kang, a former U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights, have both come under pressure to underscore human rights violations in North Korea, which is accused of incarcerating tens of thousands of citizens in labor camps dedicated to political crimes among many other abuses.

Kang said Seoul supports efforts by the international community to advance human rights in North Korea but acknowledged that denuclearization is the most paramount concern for her country.

“The North Korean human rights situation is a global issue, and we are part of the global discussions,” she said. “There are times to raise these issues. Certainly not at this time, when we very much need to move forward on the denuclearization issue.”

Trump, whose advisers initially sought a quick deal with North Korea, told reporters last week he’s in no “rush.”

Kang said the remarks reflect the complexity of the negotiations. “I think there is a lot more understanding and appreciation of the difficulty of the issue,” she said. “This is a very advanced program, so you can’t just dismantle it or do away with it in a matter of a short period.”

Source: https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/south-korea-reveals-plan-to-break-stalemate-in-us-north-korea-talks-1.550274

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]]> How Trump caught his White House and the world by surprise https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/trump-caught-white-house-world-surprise/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=trump-caught-white-house-world-surprise Fri, 09 Mar 2018 17:52:15 +0000 http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/?p=4401 (CNN)When White House aides arrived at work Thursday, they were prepared for a market-shaking event that would prompt jitters among US allies and cause heartburn among establishment thinkers, even Republicans. They weren’t prepared for two such events. President Donald Trump sent shock waves across the globe when he accepted an invitation from North Korean dictator...

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(CNN)When White House aides arrived at work Thursday, they were prepared for a market-shaking event that would prompt jitters among US allies and cause heartburn among establishment thinkers, even Republicans.

They weren’t prepared for two such events.

President Donald Trump sent shock waves across the globe when he accepted an invitation from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un for talks. No sitting US president has ever met with a leader from North Korea. The move represents the largest gamble to date for two truculent leaders who have engaged in a harrowing nuclear stare-down.

It also caught presidential advisers — who had been hurriedly finalizing details on steel tariffs while also attempting to stave off unsavory questions about a porn actress — off-guard.

Trump hadn’t initially been scheduled to meet with a delegation of South Korea officials in Washington to brief his administration on recent talks with Pyongyang. The group arrived mid-afternoon as the President was convening sessions with representatives of the video game industry and announcing his new tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum.

Trump accepts offer to meet Kim Jong Un

But after speaking with the US national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, the group, led by McMaster’s South Korean counterpart, Chung Eui-yong, convened in the Oval Office with Trump. The gathering included three US generals — McMaster, Defense Secretary James Mattis and White House chief of staff John Kelly. It was there, sitting on the gold brocade sofas, that Trump fielded the striking offer from North Korea and readily agreed.

For Trump, the offer and his unprecedented plans to meet the North Korean leader were too great to keep quiet. Trump left the Oval Office intending to return to his private residence. But he made a detour, navigating the corridors of the West Wing toward the press briefing room, a venue he’d yet to speak from during his year-and-a-month as President.

Peeking around a half-opened pocket door, Trump caught the eye of a small handful of reporters and drew them closer to him. First, he asked to speak off the record, but with an ounce of prodding agreed to go on the record, as long as his remarks remained off camera.

“South Korea’s going to be making a major statement at about 7 o’clock,” Trump said ceremoniously. Vice President Mike Pence stood silently behind him.

“About what?” a puzzled reporter asked.

“The big subject,” Trump replied, his scowl turning into a grin.

Thursday, in fact, contained two big subjects at the White House for the government in Seoul: the developments on North Korea and the tariffs on steel, which South Korea exports by millions of tons per year.
Trump clarified.

“North Korea,” he said, before ducking back into West Wing.

The brief appearance, which lasted 29 seconds, came amid a sordid swirl of reports about his alleged affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels and a thunderstorm of criticism over his beloved steel tariffs.

It sent reporters and White House officials scrambling. McMaster huddled with press secretary Sarah Sanders in her office to sort out the unusual logistics of a foreign government delivering an announcement from the White House.

It was determined that having Chung deliver his news from the briefing room podium would break protocol and prove confusing. Instead, they sent him outdoors to the set of microphones on permanent standby in the White House driveway.

“President Trump appreciated the briefing and said he would meet Kim Jong Un by May to achieve permanent denuclearization,” Chung said.

The decision, which aides said came about quickly in the Oval Office, represents a massive challenge for the President. His aides insist he is up for it.

“President Trump has made his reputation on making deals,” one official said. “President Trump was elected in part because he is willing to do — take approaches very, very different from past approaches and past presidents. That couldn’t be better exemplified in his North Korea policy.”

Sanders later wrote in a statement that the “place and time” of the meeting were still to be determined. The security and advance work would prove daunting for an experienced White House, let alone an administration still working to find its footing amid persistent chaos and low morale.

The North Korea decision wasn’t immune from the appearance of disarray. Speaking in Ethiopia hours before Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said direct talks between the US and North Korea were still in the distant future.

“We’re a long way from negotiations. We just need to be very clear-eyed and realistic about it,” Tillerson said. “I don’t know yet, until we are able to meet ourselves face to face with representatives of North Korea, whether the conditions are right to even begin thinking about negotiations.”

Trump spoke with his top diplomat before his announcement, a senior State Department official said. Both men spoke with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, who has expressed deep misgivings about opening talks with North Korea.

Ultimately, the President himself may have been the least surprised at Thursday’s developments. He has long remained open to talks with Kim, despite the view of top national security officials that too much is unknown about North Korea’s intentions in proposing them.

Trump himself offered the best preview of his move during last Saturday’s Gridiron dinner in Washington, a white tie affair for journalists, where few in attendance expected they’d be covering news of an upcoming US-North Korea summit in a matter of days.

“I won’t rule out direct talks with Kim Jong Un. I just won’t,” the President said. “As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that’s his problem, not mine.”

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Jeff Zeleny, Kaitlan Collins and Jim Acosta contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/08/politics/north-korea-us-trump-white-house-surprise/index.html

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]]> Trump agrees to meet Kim Jong Un by May, South Korea says https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/trump-agrees-meet-kim-jong-un-may-south-korea-says/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=trump-agrees-meet-kim-jong-un-may-south-korea-says Thu, 08 Mar 2018 11:05:31 +0000 http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/?p=4397

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]]> President Trump To Meet With Kim Jong Un, White House Says https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/president-trump-meet-kim-jong-un-white-house-says/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=president-trump-meet-kim-jong-un-white-house-says Fri, 09 Mar 2018 11:04:37 +0000 http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/?p=4395 President Trump has agreed to a face-to-face meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “at a place and time to be determined,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Thursday. The announcement came in response to a stunning invitation from Kim, relayed by South Korea’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong,...

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]]> President Trump has agreed to a face-to-face meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “at a place and time to be determined,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Thursday.

The announcement came in response to a stunning invitation from Kim, relayed by South Korea’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, who briefed Trump and other U.S. officials on Chung’s recent meeting with Kim in Pyongyang.

Any meeting between these two leaders would be historic. The U.S. has no diplomatic ties with North Korea, the countries are adversaries dating to the Korean War and repeatedly traded heated insults last year, including Trump’s remarks at the United Nations, in which he vowed to “totally destroy” North Korea if the U.S. was threatened.

Following North Korea’s successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles last year, the international community has steadily increased pressure on North Korea in hopes of curbing its outlaw nuclear program.

“I explained to President Trump that his leadership and his maximum pressure policy, together with international solidarity, brought us to this juncture,” Chung said. “I expressed [South Korean] President Moon Jae-in’s personal gratitude for President Trump’s leadership.”

Chung said that during his meeting with Kim, the North Korean leader expressed his commitment to denuclearization as well as his “eagerness to meet with Trump as soon as possible.” Kim also agreed to refrain from conducting further nuclear or missile tests during this period, Chung said.

Trump was guarded earlier this week about whether he would be willing to meet with Kim, but Chung reported no such reservations from the president.

“President Trump appreciated the briefing and said he would meet Kim Jong Un by May to achieve permanent denuclearization,” Chung said.

A senior administration official confirmed that the meeting is expected within “a couple of months.” The location for such a meeting is yet to be determined. Kim Jong Un is not known to have even stepped foot out of North Korea since taking power in 2011, so the location is a huge question.

Trump himself tweeted, “Great progress is being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached.”

South Korea and other countries are approaching this diplomatic overture with caution. “The Republic of Korea, the United States, and our partners stand together in insisting that we not repeat the mistakes of the past,” Chung said. “The pressure will continue until North Korea matches its words with concrete action.”

Previous U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have met with North Korean leader Kim’s father. Other U.S. presidents have been reluctant to agree to any meeting — or even a phone call — with Kim without firm preconditions in order to deny the Kim regime the validation from a global superpower.

While Chung said South Korea is “optimistic” about continued talks, it will proceed with joint military exercises with the United States. Those exercises had been postponed while South Korea hosted the Winter Olympics.

Chung said Kim “understands that the routine joint military exercises between [South Korea and the U.S.] must continue.”

Now the planning of a potential summit must begin, and without key diplomats in place. Typically before a head-of-state summit, the details of what will be negotiated are hammered out in advance in a series of working level meetings. The Trump administration just lost a key point man on Korean issues at the State Department and has yet to appoint an ambassador to South Korea. North Korea, meanwhile, has a track record of being extremely deft negotiators.

“They’re gonna know the Americans very well, as well as they can,” says John Delury, a North Korea watcher and professor at Yonsei University in Seoul. “So President Trump cannot just waltz into this kind of summit. He’s gonna need all the resources of the U.S. government expertise, from the military, national security advisors, State Department diplomats who have met with North Koreans. So this is really gonna take a dream team to advise the president so that he doesn’t make any mistakes.”

Before any high level U.S.-North Korea meeting will happen, South Korea will be busy planning another major summit — Kim Jong Un has agreed to meet with the South Korean President at the inter-Korean border next month.

Scott Horsley reported from Washington. Elise Hu reported from Seoul. Se Eun Gong contributed to this story.

Source: https://wamu.org/story/18/03/09/president-trump-to-meet-with-kim-jong-un-white-house-says/

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]]> Trump Opens Door, Just Slightly, to Talking With North Korea https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/trump-opens-door-just-slightly-talking-north-korea/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=trump-opens-door-just-slightly-talking-north-korea Tue, 27 Feb 2018 07:13:52 +0000 http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/?p=4277 “We want to talk also,” President Trump said in remarks to American governors at the White House on Monday, referring to the North Koreans. But he quickly added: “only under the right conditions.”CreditTom Brenner/The New York Times   TOKYO — North Korea’s declaration at the end of the Winter Olympics of its willingness to start a...

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“We want to talk also,” President Trump said in remarks to American governors at the White House on Monday, referring to the North Koreans. But he quickly added: “only under the right conditions.”Tom Brenner/The New York Times

 

TOKYO — North Korea’s declaration at the end of the Winter Olympics of its willingness to start a dialogue with the United States offered a sliver of optimism that the political pageantry of the Games would lead to more substantial results.

A day after the closing ceremony, President Trump responded that the United States, too, was interested in talking.

“We want to talk also,” Mr. Trump said in remarks to American governors at the White House on Monday. But he quickly added: “only under the right conditions.”

“Otherwise,” he said, “we’re not talking.”

But Mr. Trump’s hint that talks might be possible came just hours before word emerged of a potential complication to any peace efforts: the looming departure of Joseph Y. Yun, one of the State Department’s most knowledgeable and experienced diplomats on North Korea. Mr. Yun abruptly announced his plan to retire by the end of the week, a departure that could undermine any chances of talks taking place, much less progress being made on curbing North Korea’s nuclear programs.

Mr. Yun, the top American envoy on North Korea, helped negotiate the release of Otto Warmbier, the American college student who was imprisoned by North Korea and died days after returning home in a coma last year. He has been a strong advocate for a diplomatic — rather than military — resolution to the North Korean nuclear crisis.

It was not clear why Mr. Yun had decided to retire so suddenly. He did not immediately return a request for comment. Heather Nauert, spokeswoman for the State Department, said in a statement that Mr. Yun was retiring “for personal reasons” and that Rex W. Tillerson, the secretary of state, “reluctantly accepted his decision.”

Analysts were taken aback.

“It’s definitely sad news,” said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea. Mr. Yun “is very much in favor of compromise and negotiations, and it seems that his voice is not going to be heard.”

For the last year and a half, tensions have been building on the Korean Peninsula as both Mr. Trump and Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, have ratcheted up bellicose attacks that seemed to push the United States and the North closer to a confrontation.

The respite of the Olympics — to which North Korea sent 22 athletes and an entourage of dignitaries, cheerleaders and musical performers — along with a break in North Korean missile and nuclear tests since last November raised hopes that tensions were finally easing.

But no sooner had the North and the United States declared their willingness to talk to each other — something they have in fact done before— than it became clear that the two sides remained stubbornly far apart.

“The North Koreans have always said they would be happy to talk to the United States, and in fact they are eager to come and talk to us — as one nuclear weapons state to another,” said Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “And the U.S. is willing to talk to the North Koreans if they are prepared to put nuclear weapons on the table. So both sides are willing to talk, but not about the same thing.”

While leading the United States delegation to the Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, earlier this month, Vice President Mike Pence planned to secretly meet with a high-level delegation from North Korea, but the North Koreans canceled at the last minute, according to the State Department.

“This is the real challenge with North Korea,” said Mr. Cossa. “If you try to confront them, they get their backs up and feel they have to be more confrontational back, to show they are not afraid.”

”But if you make an overture, they see this as a weakness they have to exploit,” he added. “And if you offer them the moon and the stars, they say ‘O.K., we want the sun also.’”

The United Nations Security Council has imposed increasingly strict sanctions on North Korea over its weapons program, but policing violations can be difficult. On Tuesday, Japan’s Foreign Ministry announced that a Japanese military plane on Saturday had detected a North Korean and a Maldavian-flagged ship conducting what Japan judged to be ship-to-ship transfers banned by the Security Council.

Joseph Y. Yun, one of the U.S. State Department’s most knowledgeable and experienced diplomats on North Korea, abruptly announced that he would retire by the end of the week.Yonhap/European Pressphoto Agency

Many analysts say that the North Korean leadership will never agree to talks if they have to promise to give up their nuclear weapons to get the dialogue started.

“I’m very suspicious that there are conditions under which North Korea will denuclearize peacefully,” said Bridget Coggins, an associate professor of political science at University of California at Santa Barbara.

Given that North Korea believes that nuclear weapons protect the country from an attack by the United States, “I don’t see there being a lot of breakthroughs,” she said. “There would never be a security guarantee that would be sufficient enough for denuclearization to happen.”

To get any kind of dialogue going, Ms. Coggins said the United States might have to accept a freeze in missile or nuclear tests instead of demanding that the North agree to give up its arsenal altogether.

“It seems like there have been a lot of opportunities to win points and move the ball forward in terms of pulling back from crisis if that is in fact what the United States wants,” said Ms. Coggins. “And those opportunities haven’t been seized.”

Mr. Trump did not specify what he meant by the “right conditions” for talks, but Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, added context in remarks to reporters on Monday.

“Let us be completely clear,” she said. “Denuclearization must be the result of any dialogue with North Korea. Until then, the United States and the world must continue to make it known that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs are a dead end.”

Mr. Yun had previously hinted that while getting North Korea to give up its weapons program was the ultimate goal of the United States, talks might begin on the basis of a freeze in the North’s nuclear and missile testing.

“North Korea stopping missile tests and nuclear tests would be a great first step,” Mr. Yun said last month at a conference in Tokyo.

Analysts said one of the obstacles to talks was that the Trump administration continuously sends inconsistent signals.

“The administration isn’t reading from one book on North Korea policy,” said Ankit Panda, a senior editor at the Diplomat, a foreign affairs magazine, and a regional security analyst. “We’ll hear different officials hint at different approaches.”

With the United States and South Korea likely to resume joint military exercises soon, Mr. Panda warned of “a spiral of U.S. and South Korean exercises being responded to by new provocations from the North.”

There is more promise of talks continuing between North and South Korea. On Tuesday in Seoul, Kim Yong-chol, the chief North Korean delegate, had breakfast with Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon of South Korea and Suh Hoon, director of the South’s National Intelligence Service. The two sides agreed that the North and South would continue to work to improve ties and help ensure peace on the peninsula.

Ms. Coggins said that such talks were not likely to lead to a change in the North’s nuclear program, but they could lead to promising moves, like reunions of families that have been divided since the Korean War.

“These are smaller things that are impactful and meaningful, in not just a sentimental way but to kind of bridge the social divide between North and South in a way that is productive going forward,” said Ms. Coggins. She said such talks might even help bring about the release of three Americans still detained in North Korea.

Analysts said that if South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, accepts an invitation to visit Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, Mr. Moon might broker talks between the United States and the North.

“The scope and space for diplomacy is wider today than it was,” said Scott Snyder, director of United States-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting from Seoul, South Korea.

The post Trump Opens Door, Just Slightly, to Talking With North Korea first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

]]> Tillerson calls on North Korea to engage in US talks https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/tillerson-calls-north-korea-engage-us-talks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tillerson-calls-north-korea-engage-us-talks Tue, 12 Dec 2017 21:31:23 +0000 http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/?p=3245   Tillerson has been accused of ‘wasting his time’ in trying to negotiate with North Korea by US President Donald Trump [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters] MORE ON UNITED STATES Can Muslim leaders alter Trump’s Jerusalem decision?today Democrat Doug Jones defeats Roy Moore in Alabamatoday Will US net neutrality’s end harm the poor?today Trump’s Jerusalem move: ‘A blunder with...

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 Tillerson has been accused of 'wasting his time' in trying to negotiate with North Korea by US President Donald Trump [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]
Tillerson has been accused of ‘wasting his time’ in trying to negotiate with North Korea by US President Donald Trump [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that the United States is willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un without “precondition”.

Tillerson, speaking on Tuesday at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, stated the US “cannot accept” a nuclear-armed North Korea but called on the two countries to begin a dialogue.

“We’re ready to talk anytime North Korea would like to talk, and we’re ready to have the first meeting without precondition,” he said.

“It’s not realistic to say we’re only going to talk if you come to the table ready to give up your [nuclear weapons] programme.”

Tillerson added that North Korea has “too much invested” in their nuclear weapons programme and said US President Donald Trump is “realistic about that”.

Following the secretary of state’s speech, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders reiterated that Trump’s views on North Korea remain unchanged.

“North Korea is acting in an unsafe way … North Korea’s actions are not good for anyone and certainly not good for North Korea,” she added in a statement to reporters.

Trump has been openly sceptical of diplomatic efforts to engage with Kim in recent months, saying on Twitter on October 1 that Tillerson was “wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man (Kim Jong-Un).”

Trump threatened to impose “major sanctions” on North Korea after the communist country test-launched its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile yet on November 29.

The missile reached an altitude of 4,500km, with analysts estimating it could fly a distance of 13,000km – potentially giving North Korea the ability to strike any part of continental United States with its nuclear weapons.

Trump – who has previously threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea – tweeted his displeasure after a phone call with President Xi Jinping of China, Pyongyang’s increasingly perturbed, main ally.

Just spoke to President XI JINPING of China concerning the provocative actions of North Korea. Additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today. This situation will be handled!

Tillerson said the US president “would like to see” China stop supplying oil to North Korea in order to drive the government in Pyongyang towards diplomatic talks.

“The last time the North Koreans came to the table, it was because China cut the oil off,” he said.

“Three days later, the North Koreans were at the table talking. And the president feels we’re really at that stage. So he’s putting a lot of pressure on the Chinese to do more with respect to oil.”

Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown, reporting from Beijing, said diplomacy regarding issues on the Korean Peninsula is happening at “multiple levels”.

“A delegation from Russia’s defence ministry has arrived in Pyongyang today, and South Korea’s president is in China now,” he said on Wednesday.

“[The South Korean president] is here for one reason only and that’s to talk about North Korea,” Brown said, adding discussions will focus on “how diplomacy can be brought to bear to try and rein in” the government in Pyongyang.

“Both China and South Korea believe that diplomacy can work, they don’t believe in the military option … what has brought these two leaders together is the spectre of war on the Korean Peninsula.”

The United Nations and North Korea agree that the current security situation in the Korean Peninsula is “the most tense and dangerous” in the world today, according to a statement made by Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general, on December 9.

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/tillerson-calls-north-korea-engage-talks-171213074758378.html

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