With the Winter Olympics at a close and as the clock ticks down toward the conclusion of the Winter Paralympics, when military tensions are expected to skyrocket, the Korean peninsula finds itself at the center of fast-moving diplomacy.
North-South Korean security dialogue took place at a Seoul hotel on Monday between the Vice Chairman of North Korea’s Central Party Committee, Kim Yong-chol, and Chung Eui-yong, the chief of South Korea’s National Security Office.
While details of what passed between them are scant, a South Korean presidential statement suggested that the talks were wide-ranging.
“The two sides noted the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games have provided a meaningful opportunity to realize the Olympic spirit of peace and unity, as well as for peace on the Korean Peninsula and the restoration of the South-North Korean relationship, and agreed to continue working together even after the end of the Olympics to enable the establishment of lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, sustainable development of the South-North relationship and cooperation with the international community,” the presidential Blue House said in a statement reported by Yonhap.
At the meeting, Kim repeated that North Korea was open to direct talks with Washington.
Moon urges US to accept North Korean offer
On Sunday, Kim attended the Olympiad closing ceremony. Before it, he indicated to South Korean President Moon Jae-in that North Korea is willing to enter direct negotiations with the United States – a meeting Moon has consistently called for.
“We will see if Pyongyang’s message today, that it is willing to hold talks, represents the first steps along the path to denuclearization,” the White House responded on Sunday. However, Pyongyang has previously stated that its nuclear weapons are non-negotiable.
On Monday, Moon, meeting in Seoul with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong, indicated he thought Washington should take up Pyongyang’s offer. “There is a need for the United States to lower the threshold for talks with North Korea, and North Korea should show it is willing to denuclearize,” Moon was quoted as saying in a Blue House statement. “It’s important the United States and North Korea sit down together quickly.”
US President Donald Trump has followed Moon’s lead on talks, even indicating he would be willing to enter direct negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. No previous US president has ever held talks with a North Korean leader. All the same, Washington, announced on Friday yet another raft of sanctions against North Korea, infuriating Pyongyang.
Commando general is serious player, but no PR plan
In Seoul, Kim Yong-chol is proving a more low-key visitor than Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who visited South Korea for the Winter Olympiad opening ceremony. Kim, who is held to be central to her brother’s image management, passed on the latter’s invitation to Moon for a summit and generated swooning media coverage with her good looks and regal manner, although she did not appear to engage in more substantive diplomacy.
That behind-closed-doors role may fall to Kim Yong-chol. A central player in the regime, he is a badged general who formerly commanded the powerful and shadowy Reconnaissance General Bureau, which commands many of North Korea’s most potent asymmetrical assets, including espionage, special operations and cyber warfare units. He is also widely blamed in South Korean for two separate attacks in 2010 that killed 50 South Koreans.
While the general is not nearly as photogenic as the leader’s sister, nobody can accuse the South Koreans of not trying to stage-manage a meeting at the Olympic closing ceremony on Sunday evening.
There, Kim – in dark coat and a Russian-style fur hat – was seated to the left and behind, but in close proximity to, the head of the visiting US delegation, Ivanka Trump. He was separated from a key player in her delegation – US Forces Korea Commander-in-Chief Vincent Brooks, who attended in full uniform – by a man who has been identified as Lee Jin-sung, president of South Korea’s Constitutional Court. Despite their proximity, however, no interaction between the two generals – or the two delegations – appeared to take place.
The Chung-Kim meeting on Monday took place in an unspecified Seoul hotel. That hotel could well have been the Sheraton Walker, which is situated on the eastern edge of the capital and therefore easy to secure against protesters, and has accommodated North Korean delegates in the past.
Whether delegates from the North are aware that the hotel is named after Walton Walker, a US general who died during the Korean War, or that the hotel complex started life as a recreation center for US troops stationed in Korea, is unknown.
Furious conservatives rally against Kim visit, Moon
Kim certainly did not appear in central Seoul, where thousands of conservatives, including the leader of the opposition Liberty Korea Party, rallied to protest his visit. Waving Korean and some American flags, the protesters – predominantly in their 50s and 60s, including a number dressed in military paraphernalia – waved placards reading “Kim Yong-chol visit: Moon Jae-in, friend of North Korea.”
One man held up a sign blaming Kim for the sinking of the corvette Cheonan, in which 46 South Korean sailors died, and for the artillery strike on Yeonpyeong Island, in which four South Koreans were killed. Kim has been accused by previous Seoul administrations of being a key figure behind the two deadly attacks, which both took place in 2010. “Kim Yong-chol is the main provocateur and criminal toward South Korea,” the placard read. “Devilish murderer visits South Korea, provoking South Korea fury.”
While there was no violence and the protests appeared well policed, emotions ran high, with some right-wingers apparently as angry with their own president as with North Korea. “Is Moon Jae-in a person? That bitch! He should die!” spat one protester.
The liberal Moon has sought to use the Olympics as a breathing space and springboard for tension-reduction talks before combined South Korea-US military exercises take place in the spring. He is under pressure from Washington, and also outside parties including Japan, to resume these exercises and maintain “maximum pressure” on North Korea.
Thus far, Moon’s plan appears to be working. He has been rewarded with the re-opening of inter-Korean communication channels, the highest-level North Korean delegation ever to visit the South, and the current dialogue.
However, the time for a breakthrough is running out. Moon has not yet responded to Kim’s summit offer, but North and South Korean officials will meet on Tuesday to discuss the North’s participation at the Paralympics, which begin on March 9. Military exercises, and associated tensions, are expected soon after the Paralympics conclude on March 18.
Kim and his delegation are scheduled to return to North Korea on Tuesday.
Denuclearization of North Korea is just not possible. North Korea will never give up its life insurance against an attack by the US. But denuclearization isn’t even necessary. All one needs is a convincing peace treaty between North and South Korea, and the start of a normal relationship between the two states and peoples. The fact that North Korea has nuclear weapons is not any more disturbing then the US having them. North Korea is in fact less likely to use its nuclear weapons than the US.
North Korea is a nuclear power and will always be a nuclear power. North Korean should not and will not give up its nukes or its nuclear and ICBM programs. If anything it should and it will perfect its nuclear bombs and its ICBMs.
All talks between North Korea and USA should be around two matters only. First, the time-table for the removal of all American soldiers out of Korea. And, second, the amount of compensation that USA must pay to Korea for the damage done to Korea and the Koreans.
The damage done by USA to Korea and the Koreans include:
1) The invasion of Korea by American soldiers in 1950;
2) The murder of millions of Koreans by American soldiers from 1950 to 1953;
3) The destruction of infrastructures in Korea by US bombs from 1950 to 1953;
4) The occupation of part of Korea from 1950 to date;
5) The hardships to the Koreans caused by UNSC sanctions, such sanctions were requested by USA;
6) Psychological damage done to the Koreans due to regular war games in and close to Korea;
7) The rapes and murder of thousands of Korean girls by American soldiers; and,
8) Forcing Korean girls to become sex slaves for American soldiers stationed in Korea.
NK would not abandon its nuclear weapons, they witnessed the destinies of Kazaff
and Saddam in middle east, after they had abandoned their nuclear plants. At most , NK would agree to freeze the development on surface, to win time to improve the economy. As before, Kim would continue to do the nuke project secretly , so he could restart it openly at time when he decides to balance US and SK. For relation
with SK, Kim would bid his time to unify the South in his term. Before that day, he would play peace game to let SK to assist NK’s economy, and win time and channels to win back South Koreans sympathy, coaxing them to believe NK’s nuke
Weapon is a national pride. In the meantime, he would use SK to deal with US, as now he has got something from SK on direct talk opportunity with US. But at the end of the day, Kim would try every means to separate US/SK relation, and let SK people expel US troops from Korean land. Nationalism is strong among Koreans N and S, and it’d be the leverage for Kim to achieve his dream, and he has demonstrate his political skill to the world.
North Korea must not give up its nukes and its ICBMs under any circumstances, even if USA agrees to remove all its soldiers out of Korea. No one, least of all North Korea, can trust USA. They, the Americans, sign an agreement today then tear the agreement once the other party has complied with its part of the agreement.
The two Korea’s should start unification talks and lay down their own ground rules without permission of wannabe overlord USA.
Unfortunately in this world those in power almost always seek to lord it over others. The U.S. has proven this principle thoroughly time and again.
Perhaps in this time of China’s rising we can witness a new way: mutual agreement and cooperation among major players for the benefit of future generations.
North Korea must not give up its nuclear weapons
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North Korea does not want and does not need to talk with USA. North Korea wants to talk to South Korea because both North Korea and South Korea are of one mind. They both want to kick all American soldiers out of Korea and to reunify their country. However, since South Korea is occupied by USA and USA holds South Korea hostage, South Korea begs North Korea to talk to USA. North Korea does not mind to talk to USA if such talk can help North Korea and South Korea to achieve their goal. But North Korea will never give up its nuclear arsenal because the North Korean nuclear arsenal is the only guarantee that USA will remove all its soldiers out of Korea.
Michael Chan You are right that it would have to be ironclad. In the old days in East Asia, the US would have to send a hostage to the Korean court. Maybe Ivanka Trump would do. 🙂
Perhaps NK and SK can talk first and work out how they’d like to live and work together, then as a joint delegation negotiate removal of US troops from the Korean Peninsula.