[Word of North Korea’s willingness to hold talks came from South Korean officials, returning from what they described as productive meetings in the North, during which Pyongyang said it was prepared to discuss denuclearization and normalizing relations.]
By
Karen DeYoung and Anna Fifield
 |
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Director
of National Intelligence Daniel Coats spoke to Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)
about
North Korea at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing March 6.
(Senate
Armed Services Committee)
|
The White House responded with cautious
optimism Tuesday to North Korea’s reported proposal to hold “candid talks” with
the United States and South Korea, and to put its nuclear weapons and missile
testing programs on hold while engaged in dialogue.
“I think they are sincere,” said President
Trump, who attributed the apparent change in attitude to the tough sanctions
and other actions the United States has applied and pushed others to impose on
North Korea.
“Hopefully it’s positive; hopefully it will
lead to a very positive result,” he said.
Word of North Korea’s willingness to hold
talks came from South Korean officials, returning from what they described as
productive meetings in the North, during which Pyongyang said it was prepared
to discuss denuclearization and normalizing relations.
North Korea did not confirm South Korea’s
version of events, saying simply that the two sides “made a satisfactory
agreement” during the meeting between the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and
envoys sent by the South’s president, Moon Jae-in.
“We don’t know yet” the full parameters of
the dialogue, said a senior administration official, who spoke to reporters on
the condition of anonymity. Senior officials from Seoul are expected to travel
here later this week to provide more details.
In the meantime, “I think it’s a good idea for
everybody to take some perspective, take a deep breath, [and] keep in mind we
have a long history, 27 years, of talking to North Koreans,” the official said.
The official added that there is “also a 27-year history of them breaking every
agreement they’ve ever made with the United States and the international
community.
“We are open-minded, we look forward to
hearing more. But the North Koreans have earned our skepticism.”
Others were even more skeptical.
“Maybe this is a breakthrough. I seriously
doubt it, but hope springs eternal,” Director of National Intelligence Daniel
Coats told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Other intelligence officials shared his
doubts. Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency,
noted to the committee that maintaining the threat of nuclear weapons is too
vital to the regime’s survival for Kim to give them up quickly.
Lawmakers, while noting that North Korea
should not be trusted, stressed that even imperfect talks were better than no
talks.
Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who has been
chairing the Armed Services Committee hearings in the absence of Sen. John
McCain (R-Ariz.), counted himself “a little more optimistic” than Coats. “It is
something that is kind of unprecedented in coming forth and saying under some
conditions he would follow the denuclearization,” he said.
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said that “any
opening of a diplomatic channel toward easing the tensions and removing a clear
threat from North Korea is a good thing.” She noted that for such talks to
succeed, the United States would need a much stronger diplomatic corps.
The Korean overtures come at a time when the
United States has no ambassador in South Korea and no special representative on
North Korea, and when the nominee for assistant secretary of state for East
Asia has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.
But Trump himself seemed buoyant. Speaking at
a news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, Trump was asked
“to what do you owe” the reported North Korean offer. “Me,” he replied,
apparently referring to the sanctions, his harsh personal criticism of Kim, and
the threat to rain down “fire and fury” on North Korea. “No,” he quickly added
as silence engulfed the room. “Nobody got that.”
“I think they are sincere, but I think they
are sincere also because of the sanctions and what we’re doing in respect to
North Korea,” Trump said, describing the measures as “very strong and very
biting.” He also said that “the great help we’ve been given from China” has
played a role, although there are repeated reports of both Chinese and Russian
assistance in helping North Korea evade sanctions.
Sen. Lindsay O. Graham (R-S.C.) agreed with
Trump that his tough language and actions may have turned the tide in
Pyongyang. If any denuclearization agreement is reached, Graham said in a
statement, “the lion’s share of credit will go to President Trump for his strong
stand.”
Earlier, when he met Löfven in the Oval
Office, Trump directed blame for the failure of previous efforts to secure the
nuclear disarmament of North Korea toward his three predecessors — former
presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
“This should’ve been handled over many years
by many different administrations, but these are the cards we are dealt,” Trump
said.
Vice President Pence appeared to be the White
House’s designated pessimist. “All options are on the table and our posture
toward the regime will not change until we see credible, verifiable, and
concrete steps toward denuclearization,” he said in a statement.
The senior administration official said that
U.S.-South Korean military exercises planned for this month, but postponed
until after the Winter Olympics in South Korea, “will resume . . .
naturally, allies are going to train their militaries together for defensive
purposes.”
North Korea has said a number of times in the
past that it would give up its nuclear weapons under certain conditions, but
has reneged on every deal it has ever signed. Nor was the scope of any proposed
talks clear. At various times, Pyongyang has demanded the full withdrawal of
the U.S. military from South Korea or the withdrawal of “nuclear” troops and
weapons — of which there are none in the South. Pyongyang had also demanded the
cancellation of U.S. military exercises in exchange for eliminating its own
weapons.
Similarly, the Trump administration has not
clarified whether North Korea must pledge the “denuclearization” Trump has
demanded as a precondition for substantive talks or that it must be agreed upon
at the end of negotiations.
But the sudden thaw could, at the very least,
bring about a reprieve in the months of acute tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
During its visit to Pyongyang, a delegation
led by Chung Eui-yong, the South Korean national security adviser, had a
four-hour dinner with Kim and his wife, as well as other senior officials
including Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, who went to South Korea for the opening of
the Winter Olympics last month.
“The dinner proceeded in a warm atmosphere
overflowing with compatriotic feelings,” the North’s official Korean Central
News Agency said in a report, one of several that mentioned the Koreans’ shared
blood and implied that they were united together against the outside world.
During the Olympics, Pence met with the
South’s president, Moon. But a planned encounter with Kim’s sister was scrapped
by North Korea.
Chung said North Korea “made it clear” that
it would not resume provocations — such as nuclear tests or intercontinental
ballistic missile launches — while it was engaged in talks with the South. The
regime, he said in Seoul, reiterated a willingness to talk with the United
States, its avowed enemy since the Korean War, and “clearly affirmed its
commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
If events play out the way Seoul hopes, Moon
will be meeting Kim for a summit on the southern side of the inter-Korean
border late next month.
Moon’s progressive predecessors both traveled
to Pyongyang for summits with Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il. Analysts had said it
would be unseemly for a South Korean leader to make the same pilgrimage a third
time.
The two sides agreed that the next summit
will be held inside the Peace House at Panmunjom, the “truce village”
straddling the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula. The house is just
over the southern side of the line. It would mark the first time since the
Korean War ended in 1953 that the North Korean leader had crossed into the
South and the first meeting between Kim and another head of state in his six
years in power.
The two Koreas also agreed to establish a
hotline between the leaders of the two sides to ease military tensions and to
be able to consult closely. They will test the line with a phone call before
the summit.
Fifield reported from Tokyo. Karoun
Demirjian, Philip Rucker and Brian Murphy contributed to this report.
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