[But White House officials say they are not interested in any proposal that would require the United States to lift military or economic pressure on the North, even in return for a moratorium on tests. Instead, Mr. Tillerson and Mr. Mattis publicly pressed the Chinese to exert more diplomatic and economic pressure on Pyongyang, though President Trump indicated on Twitter on Tuesday that he had just about given up on obtaining help from the Chinese.]
By
David E. Sanger and Gardiner Harris
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Rockets being fired in
April during a joint military drill between the United States
and South Korea. A North Korean diplomat said
his country might be willing
to consider a moratorium
on nuclear and ballistic missile tests if such
exercises were halted.
Credit Jung Yeon-Je/Agence
France-Presse — Getty
Images
|
WASHINGTON
— The Trump administration
has come under growing pressure to open negotiations on a temporary freeze on
North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests in return for reducing the American
military footprint in the Korean Peninsula, according to American officials and
foreign diplomats.
Versions of the proposal, floated by Beijing
for several months, have been revived several times this week, first by South
Korea’s newly installed president and then by China’s foreign minister and one
of its top military officials in talks on Wednesday with Secretary of State Rex
W. Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
But White House officials say they are not
interested in any proposal that would require the United States to lift
military or economic pressure on the North, even in return for a moratorium on
tests. Instead, Mr. Tillerson and Mr. Mattis publicly pressed the Chinese to
exert more diplomatic and economic pressure on Pyongyang, though President
Trump indicated on Twitter on Tuesday that he had just about given up on
obtaining help from the Chinese.
“China understands that the United States
regards North Korea as our top security threat,” Mr. Tillerson told reporters
at a news conference after meetings with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi,
and Gen. Fang Fenghui, in the first security dialogue with Beijing conducted by
the Trump administration. “We reiterated to China that they have a diplomatic
responsibility to exert much greater economic and diplomatic pressure on the
regime if they want to prevent further escalation in the region.”
But like his predecessors, Mr. Trump is
gradually learning that for all its talk about cooperation, China is deeply
reluctant to take any measures that could seriously destabilize the North
Korean government, for fear the country might collapse or be absorbed by the
South.
So China’s strategy has been to buy time —
and preserve the status quo — with talks that may be linked to some kind of
testing freeze. They may now have a new advocate of that approach, President
Moon Jae-in of South Korea, who was elected on a platform pledging resumed
engagement with the North. On Tuesday, he embraced a similar idea, telling
Norah O’Donnell of CBS News in an interview that a freeze could be a way station
to a second phase of talks that would “achieve the complete dismantling of
North Korea’s nuclear program.”
In an interview broadcast on Wednesday, the
North Korean ambassador to India, Kye Chun-yong, said his country was willing
to consider a moratorium on nuclear and ballistic missile tests if the United
States and South Korea stopped their annual joint military exercises.
“Under certain circumstances, we are willing
to talk in terms of freezing nuclear testing or missile testing,” Mr. Kye said,
speaking in English. “For instance, if the American side completely stops big,
large-scale military exercises temporarily or permanently, then we will also
temporarily stop. Let’s talk about how to solve the Korean issue peacefully.”
But to American officials, a freeze is a trap
that previous administrations have stepped into. The Clinton administration
tried a freeze in 1994 that the North Koreans first cheated on and then openly
discarded early in the administration of President George W. Bush. At the end
of Mr. Bush’s term, a second such freeze and partial dismantlement of a nuclear
reactor was negotiated, only to be abandoned by the North Koreans as soon as
President Barack Obama entered office.
Mr. Tillerson himself rejected the idea of
such a negotiated freeze when he visited South Korea early this year, saying
that it would simply enshrine “a comprehensive set of capabilities” that North
Korea has already developed, a reference to its arsenal of a dozen or more
nuclear weapons and a growing fleet of short- and medium-range missiles that
can hit American troops in the region, along with South Korea and Japan.
But the idea has been embraced by some
longtime Korea experts, including former Defense Secretary William J. Perry,
who say that it is the only way to buy some time before North Korea
successfully tests an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the
United States.
All the other options available to the United
States have major drawbacks. They include secondary sanctions on Chinese banks
and companies doing business with North Korea; a military strike; or simple
acceptance of North Korea as a nuclear power.
Secondary sanctions could ignite a trade war.
Even a limited military strike could lead North Korea to attack Seoul with
conventional weapons, with potentially catastrophic results. And few in the
United States government are ready to accept North Korea as an established
nuclear power.
Without a clear alternative, the Trump
administration remains committed to urging China to crack down on Pyongyang.
Some 90 percent of North Korea’s trade is with China. And although China
recently banned imports of North Korea coal, overall trade between the two
countries has actually been increasing.
Mr. Tillerson said countries around the world
were cracking down on activities North Korea uses to fund its weapons programs,
“and we hope China will do their part as well.”
Mr. Mattis vowed to “continue to take
necessary measures to defend ourselves and our allies.”
Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting from
Seoul, South Korea.