This photo, published by the Korean Central News Agency on Oct. 8, 2024, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivering a speech at Kim Jong Un National Defense University in Pyongyang. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Back in presidency, Donald Trump is expected to reopen direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to address escalating military threats from the North. But clinching a deal would depend on whether Washington is willing to recognize Pyongyang as a nuclear state, experts said.
Tackling security threats involving North Korea is likely to be one of Trump’s top foreign policy priorities when he takes office for his second presidential term on Jan. 20, experts noted, predicting a possible resumption of personal diplomacy between him and Kim.
In the latest sign backing the prospect, Trump named former Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, known for his pro-dialogue stance on North Korean issues, as his presidential envoy for special missions, including North Korea.
Alex Wong, who was involved in working-level nuclear talks with North Korea during Trump’s first term, had earlier been appointed as his principal deputy national security adviser.
“I know Kim Jong-un, I get along very well with Kim Jong-un,” Trump said, boasting about his personal ties with the North Korean leader in an interview with the Time magazine earlier this month, calling North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s war with Ukraine a “very complicating” factor.
During his first term, Trump held three in-person meetings with Kim, first in Singapore in 2018, followed by Vietnam and the truce village of Panmunjom on the inter-Korean border in 2019. However, no concrete results were achieved in denuclearizing North Korea from the talks.
The subsequent Joe Biden administration did not engage directly with North Korea, while Pyongyang continued to further sophisticate its nuclear and missile arsenal.
Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said that the U.S. may try to strike a potential arms control deal with Pyongyang as part of its broader attempt to negotiate peace in Ukraine.
“Seeking engagement with North Korea is a matter of time, not willingness, which is sufficient enough,” Hong told Yonhap News Agency.
“Washington may make various attempts at peace negotiations with Russia. In that process, several deals could potentially be reached regarding the alignment between North Korea and Russia, such as one that limits the transfer of core Russian nuclear and missile technologies (to the North) in return for what Russia wants,” he noted.
Determining whether North Korea will engage in dialogue depends on Washington accepting it as a nuclear state and seeking negotiations under the premise of North Korea’s ownership of nuclear weapons, according to experts.
During an arms exhibition in Pyongyang last month, Kim Jong-un stated that his country “did everything possible in the bilateral negotiations with the U.S.,” but it was only convinced of the U.S.’ “domineering stand and unchangeably aggressive and hostile policy,” not a “will to co-exist.”
North Korea has so far made no public reference to either Trump’s presidential reelection or any prospects for dialogue with him since the election in early November.
North Korea claimed it has achieved an “irreversible hegemonic position” of missile development as it successfully test-launched the Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the mainland U.S. in October.
“What the North would consider is the threshold the U.S. has for dialogue; in other words, whether it would continue to demand denuclearization,” Hong said, projecting that Pyongyang would opt for dialogue if Washington is seen as willing to remove that barrier.
(Yonhap)
