The U.S. could pause demands for a nuclear inventory up front and instead offer an end-of-war declaration for the verified closure of North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear facility, South Korea’s foreign minister proposed in an interview with the Washington Post on Wednesday.
Kang Kyung-wha detailed her government’s position on what it sees as the most appropriate next steps for U.S.-DPRK dialogue just days before U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to travel to Pyongyang.
“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…if they do that in return for America’s corresponding measures, such as the end-of-war declaration,” Kang said. “I think that’s a huge step forward for denuclearization”.
“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,” she explained. “We want to take a different approach.”
Following the third inter-Korean summit, held in Pyongyang in September, North and South Korea issued a joint-statement which noted the DPRK’s willingness to dismantle the Yongbyon facility – long a symbol and key part of its nuclear program.
The North, it said, would take steps towards “the permanent dismantlement of Yongbyon nuclear facilities,” but only “if the U.S. take corresponding actions based on the spirit of the North Korea-U.S. joint statement of June 12.”
The current state of diplomatic affairs between the U.S. and North Korea has somewhat plateaued since the June 12 Singapore summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
However, Pompeo will be visiting Pyongyang this weekend with the aim to discuss a possible second summit between the two leaders, which Trump has previously said could happen in the short-term.
The political impasse between the two sides was made recently clear at the UN General Assembly as officials from both countries spoke publicly.
North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho said that despite several “goodwill” measures taken by the DPRK, the U.S. had still not reciprocated and decried ongoing unilateral and multilateral sanctions.
He stated that such actions cause mistrust and that North Korea will “in no way” unilaterally disarm without trust in the U.S. first. In contrast, Trump and Pompeo maintained that sanctions would remain in place until North Korea denuclearized.
The issue of a declaration to end the Korean war has also been raised as a potential sticking point and North Korean state media has previously maintained that a peace treaty should come before denuclearization.
But while controversial for many in the U.S., Kang “downplayed concerns about the declaration,” the Washington Post said of the proposal, with her describing it as a “political” document and “not a legally binding treaty”.
In a commentary on Tuesday, the country’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that a U.S. commitment to securing a formal end to the Korean War would not be enough to result in Pyongyang taking further steps towards denuclearization.
Kang also used the interview to make brief comments with regard to North Korea’s human rights record, saying that Seoul would raise such issues with the DPRK at a later time.
“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.”
Edited by Chad O’Carroll
https
://www.nknews.org/2018/10/rok-proposes-u-s-accept-closure-of-yongbyon-for-peace-declaration/