BREAKING: A team of U.S. officials led by Sung Kim crossed into North Korea today to hold summit preparation talks, despite uncertainty surrounding the June 12 Trump-Kim meeting. The North Korean delegation is led by vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui. https://t.co/eLPZiB68cC pic.twitter.com/XwRwNqYtxo

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) May 27, 2018

Protesters stage a rally in front of the Government Building in downtown Seoul on May 24, 2018, to demand the government introduce measures to fully display the ingredients of genetically modified organism (GMO) food products. (Yonhap)

According President Moon, Kim Jong-un is committed to denuclearizing:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reaffirmed his willingness to denuclearize and hold a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Sunday.

“Chairman Kim Jong-un has once again clearly expressed his commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula following his pledge in the Panmunjom Declaration and expressed his willingness to end the history of war and confrontation through the success of the North Korea-U.S. summit,” Moon said of his latest summit with the North Korean leader held Saturday.

“We two leaders agreed the June 12 North Korea-U.S. summit must be successfully held,” he told a nationally televised press conference.

The latest inter-Korean summit was held on the North Korean side of Panmunjom, a border village that sits directly on the Military Demarcation Line that divides the two Koreas. The first Moon-Kim summit was held on the South Korean side of Panmunjom on April 27.

Trump on Thursday (Washington time) called off his scheduled summit with Kim, citing the North’s tremendous anger and open hostility, only to suggest later the meeting would go ahead as planned.

“While explaining the outcome of my summit with U.S. President Trump held last week, I relayed the message that President Trump is firmly willing to end his country’s hostile relationship with North Korea and enhance economic cooperation should Chairman Kim make a decision on complete denuclearization and implements it,” Moon said.

The South Korean president visited Washington on Monday-Wednesday. He said his surprise meeting with Kim came at a suggestion from the North Korean leader, who on Friday expressed hope to meet for candid dialogue.

“Also, as both Chairman Kim and President Trump sincerely wish for the success of the North-U.S. summit, I stressed the need for the two sides to remove any misunderstanding through direct communication and to hold enough dialogue on agenda issues that need to be addressed at their summit,” President Moon said, adding, “Chairman Kim also agreed.” (……..)

“Chairman Kim Jong-un once again clearly affirmed that his commitment to complete denuclearization remains firm yesterday. What remains uncertain to Chairman Kim Jong-un is whether he can trust the U.S. promise to end their hostile relationship and guarantee North Korea’s security once the North denuclearizes,” the president added.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but if Kim Jong-un wants to ensure a deal stays in place then he needs to have President Trump ratify a treaty with the Senate.  If a deal is struck that is not ratified by the Senate then the next President can come in and not follow it.  That is what President Trump did with the Iran deal.  It would be interesting though in an election year for Congress how they would approach the ratification of a treaty with North Korea.

The South Korean ambassador to the US, Cho Yoon-je recently published an article in the Washington Post pretty much saying this time things are different with North Korea:

When North Korea announced last Wednesday that it was postponing high-level inter-Korea talks and might reconsider taking part in the planned summit with President Trump, pundits were quick to say North Korea was up to its old tricks. But my memory went back to a different moment. I recalled my days as a young economist at the International Monetary Fund in the late 1980s when Washington was debating the gloomy prospects of the Cold War. It was impossible to imagine that anything like peace could emerge during that dark time.

Today, the same pall is hovering over Washington regarding the seemingly dimmed hopes for the denuclearization of North Korea. One Korean expert pointed out to me that such skepticism in Washington is based on long-established habit; the world has tried everything, he noted, and Pyongyang has not given up its nuclear weapons no matter what. It is hard to argue against this viewpoint given North Korea’s record. And yet I would still contend that this time is different. That is why we must still give hope a chance, even though there are miles to go and the road will be bumpy.

Back in the 1980s, many in the West initially regarded the Soviet Union’s policies of economic reform and political openness, as well as its stated intention of nuclear arms reduction, with pronounced skepticism. Now we feel that same pessimism once again, this time in respect to North Korea. Some are advising Seoul and Washington that they should, instead, recall the opportunities that presented themselves in the second half of the 1980s. The grim history of the Cold War did not stop Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan from reaching for a chance at peace.  [Washington Post]

You can read the rest at the link, but so far I have not seen anything different from the Kim regime so far.  Everything so far has been spectacle and little substance which about sums up all past negotiations and agreements with the Kim regime.

Also an important fact that Mr. Cho failed to mention in his article is Reagan’s famous words of “Trust by Verify”.  I seriously doubt the Trump administration is going to sign up for any denuclearization deal with the Kim regime that does not have strong verification protocols.  When I see the Kim regime agree to nuclear material to be removed from the country and the Yongbyon nuclear plant irreversibly shut down under the supervision of international inspectors then I will say this time is different.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

Moon kept the White House out of the loop before making agreements with North Korea that have major alliance implications.https://t.co/BCf45NOKF9
He's also trying to undercut US policy & UN sanctions.https://t.co/mkaAiBNsOY
He's in no position to complain. https://t.co/5an3k7aEU5

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) May 25, 2018

Members of a pro-choice civic body rally in front of the Constitutional Court in Seoul on May 24, 2018, to demand that the criminal status of abortion be abolished, with the court to hold the first hearing on a petition filed last year by a doctor who was convicted of carrying out an abortion. The doctor requested the court review the constitutionality of the current anti-abortion law. (Yonhap)

I think this is a sign of just how off balance President Trump has the Kim regime right now, that Kim Jong-un had to have an emergency summit with Moon Jae-in just to figure out how to move forward:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met for the second time in a month on Saturday, holding a surprise summit at a border truce village to discuss Kim’s potential meeting with President Donald Trump, Moon’s office said.

Kim and Moon met hours after South Korea expressed relief over revived talks for a summit between Trump and Kim following a whirlwind 24 hours that saw Trump cancel the highly anticipated meeting before saying it’s potentially back on.

Moon, who brokered the summit between Washington and Pyongyang, likely used Saturday’s meeting to confirm Kim’s willingness to enter nuclear negotiations with Trump and clarify what steps Kim has in mind in the process of denuclearization, said Hong Min, a senior analyst at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification.  [Associated Press]

I can only imagine what they talked about, but I would not be surprised if the conversation included the fact that the usual playbook is not working on President Trump.  The past strategy of the North Koreans giving little to nothing in return for massive aid and lifting of sanctions is clearly not going to happen this time.  The Trump administration has made it pretty clear that real denuclearization is what will happen if a deal is to be done.

By the way does anyone want to provide their own caption of the below picture?:

Former North Korean diplomat Thae Yong-ho who defected to South Korea in 2016 describes in his book what it was like escorting Kim Jong-un’s brother, Kim Jong-chul around London to attend an Eric Clapton concert:

Jong-chul stayed in London for 61 hours, during which he saw Clapton’s concert twice. He also went shopping at an HMV record store and Selfridges department store, both in London, and drove 100 kilometers to buy a “Made in U.S.” guitar he had been eagerly looking for. He paid 2,400 pounds for it.

His plan to see the concert could have been canceled when his visit was leaked to the media. A throng of reporters gathered at the concert venue to catch a glimpse of the “unfortunate prince,” an often-used term to explain his fate of yielding the North’s throne to his younger brother.

But he pushed ahead and ended up seeing the concert under British police protection. He bought many souvenirs after the concert ― cups, key chains, T-shirts and albums.

Jong-chul looked quite moved when he bought the American guitar, according to Thae. He cuddled it for a while and gave an impromptu performance for 40 minutes at the shop. People extolled his play. The guitar was at his side all the way back to London.

“I’ve sent a cable to many embassies to find this guitar, but they failed. Why couldn’t they be able to find this?” he asked himself.

Thae said Jong-chul was married and had children. He bought children’s clothes at Selfridges.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but Kim Jong-chul has been described as being effeminate in the past, but Thae said he saw no evidence of that his time with him in London. Judging from the above picture Jong-chul does not have the same authoritarian appearance Jong-un.  Plus the behavior described by Thae makes Jong-chul appear a bit childish.  This tends to further validate why he was passed over for the North Korean leadership.

It appears even the South Korean reporters are dubious of the closure of Punggye-ri nuclear test site:

North Korea said it had totally destroyed all tunnels at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site, Thursday, but international reporters who witnessed the event said their lack of expertise in nuclear technology meant they couldn’t verify the complete dismantlement.

The group of reporters from South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, China and Russia observed the demolition following a briefing by a deputy director of the North Korean Nuclear Research Institute.

“We had already discarded the first tunnel in the east, after the successful test in 2006. In the second one in the north, the country held five nuclear tests from 2009 to 2017,” the official, who refused to be named, was quoted as saying by the pool reporters.

The research institute officials repeatedly said the third and fourth tunnels, which have not been used, have remained intact despite a series of nuclear tests in the second one. “The third one is the widest. It’s always ready. The fourth was created because a bigger facility was needed,” another official said.

The first explosion at 11 a.m. destroyed the second tunnel. North Korean officials asked photographers and cameramen “Are you ready to shoot?” before a thunderous roar resonated throughout Mount Mantap following a countdown of “three, two, one.”  [Korea Times]

You can read and see more pictures of this dog and pony show at the link.  Interestingly the North Koreans even offered the reporters spring water to drink from the mountain to prove there is no radiation leakage, but offered no proof there was no radiation.