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In this photo provided by the Korean Central News Agency, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un receives reports on the meetings between US and North Korea special envoys ahead of the second summit between Kim and then-US President Donald Trump at the Melia Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam. The woman reporting to Kim in the center is North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui. (Yonhap News)

A new statement by North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui can be summed up in a single sentence: If the Biden administration wants dialogue and negotiations with North Korea, it needs to offer some meaningful steps that can be regarded as a relaxation of its “hostile policy.”

Choe’s statement was published in the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), a North Korean media outlet intended for foreign audiences, early in the morning of Thursday. By itself, the text of the statement isn’t enough for us to thoroughly grasp the message that Pyongyang wanted to send the Biden administration. Considerable weight should also be given to the timing of the statement and the person who made it.

First of all, this was Choe’s first statement since Biden took office; she released her last statement eight months ago, on July 4, 2020. This statement represents North Korea’s public and formal confirmation that Choe is still the face of North Korea’s talks with the US, even under the Biden administration.

Choe has released seven statements altogether, beginning with her first on June 29, 2019, the day before a meeting between the leaders of South Korea, the US and North Korea at Panmunjom. All of her statements have been aimed at the US.

“This confirms that Choe is still in charge of [North Korea’s] US policy and that it’s still her role to announce [the North’s] position on relations with the US to the outside world,” said an official at South Korea’s Ministry of Unification.

Second, Choe’s statement can be regarded as North Korea’s first official remarks on US policy in terms of both form and substance since Biden’s inauguration.

Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, used a statement Tuesday to South Korea to “warn the new US administration” that “it had better refrain from causing a stink.” But that was only two short sentences at the end of the statement.

“In both form and content, Choe’s statement can be regarded as North Korea’s first official expression of its [policy] position toward the Biden administration,” said the official at the Unification Ministry.

This signals that both the US and North Korea have ended their silence and started seeking a point of contact — and wrangling for the upper hand —about 50 days into the Biden administration.

“The U.S. has tried to contact us since mid-February through several routes including New York,” Choe said, officially confirming remarks made by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday that the US had tried to make contact with North Korea but hadn’t gotten a response.

The fact that both the White House and North Korea’s top envoy to talks with the US have officially confirmed the first attempt at contact between the two sides in the Biden administration is itself something new.

Given the humiliating failure of the second North Korea-US summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in Feb. 2019, it’s inevitable that the North would be extra cautious before moving forward again.

Choe disparaged the Biden administration’s first overture as a “cheap trick by which it tries to use […] DPRK-US contact as a means for gaining time and building up […] public opinion,” using an acronym for North Korea’s official name.

“But what has been heard from the US since the emergence of the new regime is only [a] lunatic theory of ‘threat from [North] Korea’ and groundless rhetoric about ‘complete denuclearization,’” Choe said.

“The US military keeps stealthily [making] military [threats] to us and […] also openly started [aggressive] joint military exercises targeting us.”

In short, North Korea hasn’t responded to the US’s overture because it has “maintained [a] high-handed posture.”

“We won’t give [the US] such opportunities as in Singapore and Hanoi again,” Choe said. “It had better contemplate what we can do in the face of its continued hostile policy toward us.”

The US must take steps to relax its “hostile policy” if it wants to engage in dialogue and negotiations, Choe said. She finished with a low-key threat that North Korea will respond to the US “on the principle of power for power” if the US continues to ignore the principle of “goodwill for goodwill.”

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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