Obama-Trump administration’s North Korean nuclear negotiations
Selected as acting assistant secretary of the US Department of State for East Asia Pacific
Source photo” alt=”U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo enters the conference hall on July 7, 2018 in Pyongyang for a high-level talk with North Korea. Behind the scenes is Sung Kim, the new assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific Department of the US State Department (then US Ambassador to the Philippines). <한겨레> Material photo” />
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo enters the conference hall on July 7, 2018 in Pyongyang to hold high-level talks with North Korea. Behind the scenes is Sung Kim, the new assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific Department of the US State Department (then US Ambassador to the Philippines). Material photo
It is confirmed that the U.S. State Department appointed the U.S. Ambassador to Donesia Sung Kim, who was well versed in the North Korean nuclear issue on the 20th, the first day of the inauguration of the administration of Joe Biden, as the acting assistant secretary in charge of East Asia Pacific covering East Asia issues, and attention is focused on the background and aftermath. As Ambassador Kim has been deeply involved in the North Korean nuclear negotiations, which the Trump administration has enthusiastically promoted, the process of reviewing the North Korean nuclear policy publicly revealed by the Biden administration is expected to gain momentum. Major Biden administration officials refrained from commenting on the principle of “reviewing the past policy” on how to solve the North Korean nuclear issue, one of the “biggest challenges” of US diplomacy. Secretary of State Tony Blincoln said at a Senate approval hearing on the 19th that “we will review all the measures with allies including Korea and Japan,” and White House spokesman Jen Saki said in a briefing on the 22nd, “We are committed to keeping the Americans and our allies safe. We will introduce a new strategy. The approach will begin with a thorough policy review while consulting with Korea and Japan.” The problem is the’speed’ and’direction’ of the review.
Material photo” alt=”A photo of the high-level North Korea-US conference held in Pyongyang on July 7, 2018. On the U.S. side, Secretary of State Pompeo, including US Ambassador Sung Kim, who led the working-level talks at Panmunjom, US Ambassador to the Philippines, Alex Wong, Deputy Assistant Secretary of East Asia-Pacific, Andrew Kim, Center Director of the Korea Mission Center of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and Alison Hooker, an assistant in charge of the Korean Peninsula at the White House National Security Council (NSC). To assist. From the north, six people attended, including North Korean Labor Party Vice Chairman Kim Young-cheol, Foreign Minister Choi Sun-hee, North American Deputy Director Choi Kang-il, and Kim Seong-hye, head of the Unification Strategy Office of the Unification Front. <한겨레> Material photo” />
Photo of the high-level North Korea-US conference held in Pyongyang on July 7, 2018. On the U.S. side, Secretary of State Pompeo, including US Ambassador Sung Kim, who led the working-level talks at Panmunjom, US Ambassador to the Philippines, Alex Wong, Deputy Assistant Secretary of East Asia-Pacific, Andrew Kim, Center Director of the Korea Mission Center of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and Alison Hooker, an assistant in charge of the Korean Peninsula at the White House National Security Council (NSC). To assist. From the north, six people attended, including North Korean Labor Party Vice Chairman Kim Young-cheol, Foreign Minister Choi Sun-hee, North American Deputy Director Choi Kang-il, and Kim Seong-hye, head of the Unification Strategy Office of the Unification Front. Material photo
In that sense, the appointment of Ambassador Sung Kim can be seen as having considerable implications for the Biden administration’s move toward North Korea. Ambassador Sung Kim is an expert on the North Korean nuclear issue, who served as an envoy in charge of the North Korean nuclear issue and chief representative of the six-party talks during the Obama administration, and has been out of formality for a while, appointed by Secretary of State Blingen, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and Kurt Campbell at the White House National Security Council (NSC). ) Unlike the Indo-Pacific coordinator, the Trump administration was also in the middle of North Korean nuclear negotiations. In particular, at the end of May to discuss the agenda of the first North Korea-U.S. summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018, at the end of May, he dealt with the injured North Korean Foreign Ministry’Iron Wall’ Choi Sun-hee, and was also on site during the’historic’ Singapore meeting. . Afterwards, Ambassador Kim accompanied former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s third visit to Pyongyang on July 6-7 to meet with North Korea-US high-level talks with Kim Young-cheol, then Vice Chairman of the Labor Party and Head of the Unification Front. At that time, as the first step toward denuclearization, Kim Young-cheol threw a mobile phone to Pompeo, who requested a’report’ of nuclear facilities, and said, “Call Trump. If it were Trump, I wouldn’t say that.” Shortly after Pompeo and others left Pyongyang, a spokesman for the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that Pompeo was “only with a strong demand for denuclearization.” Ambassador Kim said that he was excluded from working-level negotiations with North Korea after Steve Vegan was appointed as the special representative for North Korea policy in August, but he was a negotiating practitioner regarding the’Singapore Joint Declaration’, which he wished President Moon Jae-in to use as a starting point for North Korea-US dialogue. As such, it seems that Koreans, such as Seo Hoon, head of the Blue House National Security Office, and candidate Jeong Eui-yong, the foreign minister, have a deeper understanding of the meaning and limitations. In other words, with Ambassador Kim’s departure, the Biden administration has determined that it is a diplomatic task that needs urgent solution to the North Korean nuclear issue, and it is possible to predict that the pace of policy review will also accelerate. In addition, Ambassador Kim, who is of Korean descent, can use Korean as her native language, allowing in-depth communication with Korea. However, it seems that it remains to be seen whether Ambassador Kim will become an official assistant secretary of the East Asia-Pacific after taking off the label of ‘acting’. The question is how much the’direction’ of the Biden administration’s policy toward North Korea will match President Moon Jae-in’s thinking. Unlike the Moon Jae-in administration at the end of the term, which boldly restarts the’peace process on the Korean peninsula’ and achieves tangible results, the Biden administration seems to take an extremely cautious approach to avoid repeating the repeated mistakes of the Obama and Trump administrations. In particular, Ambassador Kim’s thoughts, as a US diplomat, who directly confirmed North Korea’s unique approach to’denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula’ in Pyongyang immediately after the Singapore talks, are inevitably different from those on the Korean side. In some cases, the person who was expected to be the best helper could be the worst stumbling block. By Gil Yoon-hyung, staff reporter [email protected]