With US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo scheduled to meet with his North Korean counterpart this week, the two sides are ratcheting up pressure to gain better negotiation position in the denuclearization talks.

The Trump administration has insisted that economic sanctions remain on North Korea until it dismantles its nuclear and missile programs. North Korea, however, has demanded the US lessen its sanctions pressure before any progress on denuclearization talks. 

The tug-of-war is expected to escalate in the lead-up to Pompeo’s meeting with North Korea’s “No. 2,” where the two countries’ top negotiators will discuss the prospect of inviting US inspectors to North Korea’s nuclear sites and holding a second summit between the two countries’ leaders. 

“If the second Trump-Kim summit ends with an agreement as vague as the one from the first summit in Singapore, there will be political backlash in the US,” said Park Won-gon, a professor at Handong Global University.

“That is why the US wants to talk about the verification issue at a high-level meeting before there is another Trump-Kim summit. Washington wants to hold the second summit when it feels there is progress on nuclear talks.” 

While Pompeo did not disclose when and where the meeting would take place, speculation is rampant that the high-level talks will open in New York later this week after the US midterm elections on Tuesday.

The tit-for-tat between Pyongyang and Washington has been intensifying, with North Korea threatening to shift its focus back to developing nuclear weapon in the face of the US reluctance toward sanctions relief.

In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News on Friday, Pompeo said economic pressure will remain in place until the US can verify Kim Jong-un’s denuclearization commitments expressed during his meeting with Pompeo in October and US President Donald Trump in June.

“I was with Chairman Kim early in October. In each of those conversations he has made clear his intention to denuclearize. ... We’ve got to verify that. We’ve got to make sure that we get that piece of it right. We won’t accept anyone’s word for it.”

“A lot of work remains, but I’m confident that we will keep the economic pressure in place until such time as Chairman Kim fulfills the commitment he made to President Trump back in June in Singapore.”
 
US reluctance to provide sanctions relief has prompted strong pushback from North Korea, which has threatened to restart development of its nuclear weapons program unless Washington lifts sanctions.

According to the Korean Central News Agency, the North Korean Foreign Ministry official warned that unless sanctions were lifted, North Korea could reinstate its “Byungjin policy” of simultaneously pursuing nuclear weapons and economic development.

Kim declared in April that North Korea had become a full-fledged nuclear power with advanced capability and that the Byungjin policy would be replaced by a single focus on improving the economy.

“We have been waiting with patience. ... The word byungjin could be added to our policy line of focusing on building economy,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, released under the name of the director of the ministry’s Institute for American Studies.

Stressing that improvement in US-North Korea relations and the sanctions campaign is “incompatible,” the director added it is a “foolish idea” for the US to assume that sanctions and other pressure campaigns can lead to the denuclearization of North Korea.

The two sides are expected to mount pressure on each other until Pompeo meets with “the number two person” in North Korea, as he described it. Many analysts consider it to be Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party.

While Pompeo did not disclose when and where the meeting would take place, speculation is rampant that the high-level talks will open in New York later this week after the US midterm elections on Tuesday.

The meeting, if it is held, will come about a month after Pompeo met with Kim. Pompeo said during his visit to Pyongyang on Oct. 7 that Kim committed to allowing US inspectors to come look at “two significant sites.” Pompeo did not identify them.

The meeting will also discuss the prospect of a second summit meeting between Trump and Kim. In an interview on conservative radio program “The Laura Ingraham Show” on Wednesday, Pompeo said the meeting will likely take place early next year. 

(jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)