hankyoreh

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump greet each other at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel on the evening of Feb. 27. (AFP/Yonhap News)

The world has long awaited the ongoing summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump. During working-level negotiations, the two sides reportedly resolved some of their differences in fleshing out the joint statement made in Singapore last year that outlined the general framework of denuclearization and the normalization of relations. But since the final decision rests with Kim and Trump, just as during last year’s summit, we probably won’t find out what’s actually in the Hanoi joint statement until it’s officially announced.

After arriving in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 26, the two leaders were likely briefed on the progress of the working-level talks, which have been led by US State Department Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun and North Korea State Affairs Commission Special Representative for US Affairs Kim Hyok-chol. Starting on Feb. 21, Biegun and Kim sat down together every day for five days to carry out a fierce tug-of-war over the agenda of the summit.

The general outline of the agenda has come to light. On Feb. 26, US news website Vox quoted anonymous sources who are familiar with the North Korea-US negotiations as saying that “the US would agree to lift some sanctions on North Korea and improve ties between the two countries in exchange for a commitment from Kim Jong Un to close down a key nuclear facility.”

Vox reports that North Korea and the US have tentatively reached the following agreements: to sign a symbolic declaration of peace that would conclude the Korean War, for the North to repatriate the remains of more US soldiers who died during the Korean War and for North Korea and the US to set up joint liaison offices in each other’s countries. In exchange for the North suspending the production of nuclear materials at Yongbyon, the US would agree to urge the UN Security Council to provide North Korea with partial sanctions relief to facilitate inter-Korean economic cooperation. This would mean some degree of concrete progress on the agreements reached in the joint statement in Singapore, namely resetting North Korea-US relations, building a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula and achieving complete denuclearization.

When reporters asked about the possibility of an end-of-war declaration prior to the social dinner on the evening of Feb. 27, Trump said they would have to wait and see. Considering that Trump told reporters flatly that he hadn’t given ground on the goal of North Korea’s denuclearization, the answer about waiting and seeing appears to hint the possibility of an end-of-war declaration. Multiple sources in the South Korean government who are familiar with the North Korea-US negotiations confirmed to the Hankyoreh that the Vox report was generally an accurate reflection of the working-level negotiations through Feb. 26. But as Vox emphasized, this is just a tentative agreement that’s subject to change when the two leaders meet on Feb. 27.

“I think that everything will be decided tonight [Feb. 28]. Today, the two leaders will have a candid discussion and will frame an agreement on the areas where they see eye to eye based on the framework of the working-level discussions thus far,” said Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean Studies. At the time of the first summit in Singapore last year, the specific steps toward denuclearization and other details of the working-level negotiations between US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui were reportedly not included in the joint statement.

One diplomatic source in Washington, DC, predicted that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Workers’ Party of Korea Vice Chairman Kim Yong-chol, who have shepherded the North Korea-US negotiations thus far, would handle the final adjustments before the summit. But the prevailing view is that the decisions about the scope of facilities, including Yongbyon, to be denuclearized and the degree of corresponding measures, including sanctions relief, will ultimately be made by the two leaders.

In a related development, the Choson Sinbo, the official organ of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), published a notable article on Feb. 27 about the second North Korea-US summit in which it described sanctions relief on North Korea as the “touchstone for determining the US’ sincerity” and urged the US to take “meaningful steps toward denuclearization.”

“Easing sanctions isn’t the only item on the agenda of the summit. The reason that North Korea has taken issue with the sanctions isn’t because it’s afraid of them or hurt by them but because they’re a touchstone for determining the US’ sincerity about the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the Choson Sinbo article said. Through these comments, North Korea is presumably once again emphasizing that sanctions relief is the confidence-building measure it wants from the US while also asking the US to halt its joint military exercises with South Korea and to stop deploying strategic weapons to the Korean Peninsula.

“North Korea appears to have also asked the US to remove its nuclear umbrella from South Korea to gain leverage in the negotiations,” said Koo Kab-woo, professor at the University of North Korean Studies.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]