Jung Pak the U.S. nuclear envoy to North Korea seems to be hinting that the U.S. is open to a deal that does not include the denuclearization of North Korea. This validates what a National Security Council spokesman put out earlier this week:
The top U.S. nuclear envoy pointed out the need Tuesday for “interim steps” to be taken on a path towards North Korea’s ultimate denuclearization, which she stressed would not happen “overnight.”
U.S. Senior Official for North Korea Jung Pak made the remarks while reiterating Washington’s “clear” goal to pursue the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. (……)
“I don’t want to prejudge that as a final step,” she said at a forum hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “But I think it goes without saying that there would have to be interim steps toward ultimate denuclearization.”
Here is what the U.S. would focus a so called interim deal on, freezing other weapons programs that North Korea has:
“I think it is really important to acknowledge that there is a lot of weapons to be dealt with,” she said, noting the North’s efforts to develop solid-fuel ballistic missiles, tactical nuclear weapons, hypersonic capabilities and unmanned underwater vehicles.
“Given the scope of the DPRK weapons activities and its proliferation, there is a lot to work with there … It is not going to happen overnight. That’s the reality of it,” she added. DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
You can read more at the link, but in my opinion the best that can be hoped for at this point is an agreement limiting the amount of nuclear weapons North Korea has, a ban on proliferation, and an end to their ICBM program in return for dropping sanctions.
I have been saying this for years that North Korea is never going to denuclearize and it appears U.S. negotiators may finally be understanding this:
Mira Rapp-Hooper, the U.S. National Security Council senior director for East Asia and Oceania, speaks during a forum in Seoul co-hosted by South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper and the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on March 4, 2024.
The United States seeks dialogue with North Korea, including on mitigating the risk of an inadvertent conflict on the Korean Peninsula, a National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson said Monday, stressing its goal for the “complete” denuclearization of the peninsula remains unchanged.
The remarks came after Mira Rapp-Hooper, the NSC senior director for East Asia and Oceania, said this week that Washington will consider “interim steps” on the pathway toward the North’s denuclearization — a statement that raised speculation about a potential U.S. policy shift.
In the negotiation lexicon for the North, interim steps usually involve such measures as Pyongyang’s freeze of its nuclear weapons development in return for sanctions relief or other incentives to encourage the regime’s denuclearization efforts.
“Our position on the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula has not changed,” the spokesperson said in response to a question from Yonhap News Agency, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
You can read more at the link, but in my opinion the best that can be hoped for at this point is an agreement limiting the amount of nuclear weapons North Korea has, a ban on proliferation, and an end to their ICBM program.
Orwell would be impressed by how North Korea is using their version of the “Ministry of Truth” to scrub their state media to create a new reality for their citizens:
North Korea has removed articles with unification references from the website of its state-run media outlet, after leader Kim Jong-un called South Korea the North’s “primary foe” and vowed not to seek unification with the South.
As of Monday, a majority of the articles containing references to unification, such as “peaceful reunification,” “great national unity” and “northern half,” appear to have been deleted from the website of the North’s Korean Central News Agency.
The move came as Kim has defined inter-Korean ties as relations between “two states hostile to each other” during a year-end party meeting.
It looks like Japan is the one democratic nation that the North Koreans are looking to play nice with:
The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered a rare opening for Japan, saying she saw a positive tone in comments from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is seeking a summit. Kim Yo Jong indicated a meeting of leaders would be possible if Japan “does not lay such a stumbling block as the already settled abduction issue,” she said in a press statement issued Thursday on state media.
“It is my opinion that if Japan makes a political decision to open up a new way of mending the relations through its courteous behavior and trustworthy action on the basis of courageously breaking with anachronistic hostility and unattainable desire and recognizing each other, the two countries can open up a new future together,” the statement carried on the Korean Central News Agency said.
The tone is a marked change from comments she issued nearly two years ago when she lumped Japan in with a bunch of “sinister” nations she accused of raising rabble at the United Nations to criticize Pyongyang for the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
You can read more at the link, but what I suspect is that the Kim regime sees the growing relationship between Japan and South Korea. Because of this they probably want to play nice with Japan in order to try and separate them from South Korea.
If North Korea quit making threats and provocations there wouldn’t be a need to conduct aerial surveillance of their country:
North Korea on Saturday accused South Korea and the United States of heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula with aerial reconnaissance activities.
In a commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency, the North said that Seoul and Washington have been stepping up their “spying activities” this month, calling such a move a “stern provocation” against the country.
The North claimed the countries attempted to secure information on the North’s inner regions by conducting surveillance activities with the U.S. RC-135 Combat Sent and RC-135W Rivet Joint and South Korea’s advanced high-altitude unmanned aircraft Global Hawk and E-737 Peace Eye early warning aircraft.
The North said it is closely monitoring such military activities and threatened that it is ready to destroy its enemies anytime.
North Korea is building a new recreational zone, specifically for Russian tourists.
The authorities of Russian Primorsky Krai reported that Wonsan-Kalma tourist zone with an area of 2.8 km² will include 17 hotels, 37 inns, 29 stores, a four-kilometer beach and other… pic.twitter.com/BJvNu1hova
I don’t think the North Koreans would undertake an attributal terrorist attack against South Korea if it wanted to raise tensions. An operation similar to what they did with the Cheonan makes more sense. In that operation they sunk a ROK naval vessel and then blamed the South Koreans for sinking it themselves. The left wing useful idiots in South Korea then accused the former President Lee for sinking the Cheonan to blame North Korea. There are still useful idiots to this day in South Korea that believe this nonsense:
This photo, provided by the Korea Institute for National Unification on Feb. 14, 2024, shows the state-run think tank holding a forum on inter-Korean relations in Seoul.
North Korea may attempt to mobilize its spies or sympathizers in South Korea to stage a terrorist attack on the South in a manner similar to attacks by Islamic Jihad, an expert said Wednesday.
Cho Han-bum, a senior research fellow at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) said North Korea is expected to raise military tensions as its leader Kim Jong-un defined inter-Korean ties as relations “between two states hostile to each other” at a year-end party meeting.
“With Kim’s announcement, North Korean spies and sympathizers in South Korea could work as ‘wartime’ agents to engage in activities commensurate with a state of war,” Cho told a forum on the two Koreas’ relations.
He raised the possibility of North Korean espionage agents staging a terrorist attack in South Korea on orders from North Korea, or of South Koreans with pro-North Korean stances staging a “lone-wolf” terrorist attack.
