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As he spoke with South Korean officials about the delayed nuclear talks with North Korea, US President Joe Biden’s special envoy for North Korea said he’s ready to meet his North Korean counterparts “anywhere and at any time.”
Sung Kim’s travel to Seoul comes amid dwindling hopes for a rapid resumption of talks and rising tensions over continuing military drills between the US and South Korea. North Korea has labelled the drills as a drill for an invasion and has warned unspecified responses that will put the US and South Korea in a “security crisis.”
Kim repeated that the Biden administration has no hostile intent toward North Korea and that the joint drills are normal and defensive in nature after meeting with top South Korean diplomat Noh Kyu-duk.
Kim and Noh told reporters that they talked about methods to make diplomacy easier, such as humanitarian cooperation with North Korea in providing anti-virus resources, cleanliness, and safe drinking water. They made no precise plans public.
Kim will also see Igor Morgulov, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, who is also in Seoul.
“The US has no aggressive intentions against (North Korea),” Kim stated. The combined military exercises between the US and South Korea, he said, are “long-standing, routine, and solely defensive in character, and serve the security of both our countries.”
Kim stated, “I continue to stand ready to meet with my North Korean colleague at any time and place.”
Since the collapse of a summit between former President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2019, when the Americans rejected the North’s demand for a major easing of economic sanctions in exchange for a partial reduction of its nuclear capabilities, talks between the two countries have stalled.
Kim has since committed to strengthen his country’s nuclear deterrent while urging his people to remain resilient in the face of US pressure in their fight for economic self-sufficiency. His government has so far rebuffed the Biden administration’s offers of dialogue, insisting that Washington first end its “hostile” tactics.
North Korea has closed its borders since the outbreak began, but it will eventually need to open them to humanitarian supplies and talks with the US in order to carry out vaccines, according to Leif-Eric Easley, an international studies professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. That doesn’t mean it won’t conduct a missile launch during or after the manoeuvres between the US and South Korea, according to Easley.
While North Korea has not reported any coronavirus illnesses, experts are sceptical of its claim of a pristine record, considering the country’s inadequate health-care infrastructure and porous border with China. The World Health Organization’s envoy to North Korea, Edwin Salvador, told The Associated Press last week that the North has yet to satisfy the “technical conditions” for receiving vaccines under the United Nations-backed COVAX programme.
North Korea has long resented joint military drills between the United States and South Korea, and frequently reacts with its own weapons displays. Some of the allies’ combined military exercises have been cancelled or scaled up in recent years to make room for diplomacy or because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
North Korea’s recent threat, according to some analysts, could signify a resumption of its nuclear testing. In March, North Korea interrupted a year-long hiatus in ballistic tests by shooting two short-range missiles into the sea, continuing a long-standing practise of putting incoming US administrations to the test with military demonstrations intended at gauging Washington’s reaction and extracting concessions.
Since then, there have been no reported test launches as Kim has focused national efforts on fending off the coronavirus and rescuing a shattered economy further harmed by pandemic border closures and food shortages.
