NK, US to speed up talks for summit By Lee Min-hyung, Joint Press Corps

Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, left, shake hands with his North Korean counterpart Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, before starting inter-Korean high-level talks at the Peace House on the South’s side of the border village of Panmunjeom, Monday. Both sides reached a package of agreements to initiate inter-Korean reconciliatory projects. / Joint Press Corps

The war of nerves between North Korea and the United States is escalating ahead of the second summit between their leaders as their denuclearization negotiations are showing no tangible results.

A sign of hope was apparent for smooth progress in their bilateral talks last week when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made headlines by sharing his strong determination to hold the second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump as soon as possible.

Trump also repeatedly expressed his willingness to have another round of talks with Kim, praising the latter for not staging any nuclear or missile tests after pledging denuclearization earlier this year.

“They are closing up (nuclear) sites,” Trump said Sunday (local time) in a local media interview. “They have not tested a missile. They have not tested a rocket, and we have a relationship now,” he said, expressing trust in Kim.

Even if both sides have tentatively agreed to hold the summit sometime no later than the end of this year, they are edging into a new phase of their denuclearization talks by tiptoeing around each other before holding pre-summit talks.

Starting this month, Washington signaled that it wanted to hold working-level talks with Pyongyang at the earliest possible date. Steve Biegun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, plans to lead a delegation from Washington to possibly meet with his North Korean counterpart Vice Foreign Minister Choi Sun-hee.

Both sides are expected to hold a meeting possibly in Vienna to narrow their differences on their ongoing denuclearization talks.

But with the North declining to confirm the schedule for the working-level talk to date, both sides are showing signs of engaging in a political tug-of-war ahead of the second summit.

In recent months, Washington and Pyongyang have faced a deadlock in their talks, failing to fine-tune their differences on the method and timetable for the denuclearization of the North.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent visit to Pyongyang, however, raised hopes for Washington and Pyongyang to restart their dialogue in a constructive way.

Despite the ongoing war of nerves, North Korea will soon arrange a schedule for dialogue with the U.S. regarding the working-level talks, as the regime hopes to open its economy to the world by engaging more with international society, analysts say.

On Monday, the two Koreas held high-level talks at the Peace House, the South’s side of the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjeom.

The meeting was held as part of a follow-up to fulfill the inter-Korean joint agreement signed by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un last month in Pyongyang in their third summit this year.

“The meeting is taking place at a critical juncture ahead of the second Washington-Pyongyang summit,” Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said Monday.

Under the joint agreement from the high-level talk, Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to hold a general-level military dialogue as soon as possible to discuss the establishment of an inter-Korean military committee.

They also reached a consensus to hold a groundbreaking ceremony for inter-Korean railways and highways sometime between late November and early December.

The agreement came as the North’s young leader has reiterated his strong determination to focus on the regime’s economic development. Following a series of summits with Kim, President Moon also said Kim showed his firm willingness to scrap nuclear weapons and join hands with the South and other countries for its economic growth.

North Korea also recently opened a website to introduce its trading policies and investment plans.

The site, called the Foreign Trade of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, shares information on its 14 plans for investment. Hotel business topped the list, with the North unveiling a plan to renovate three hotels and construct four new ones.

Source:koreatimes.co.kr