FM calls Biden's N.K. policy 'realistic'

Diplomacy 16:52 May 21, 2021

By Kim Seung-yeon

SEOUL, May 21 (Yonhap) -- The new U.S. policy on North Korea is "realistic" as it embraces past agreements with Pyongyang, including a 2018 summit deal committing the regime to complete denuclearization, South Korea's top diplomat said.

Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong made the remark in a television interview in Washington on Thursday (U.S. time), a day before President Moon Jae-in and Biden were to hold in-person summit talks, with North Korea's denuclearization expected to top the agenda.

Earlier this week, White House Policy Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific Kurt Campbell said the Biden administration's approach to the North will "build on Singapore and other agreements made by previous administrations."

"It is a realistic approach ... The U.S. government decided to continue to maintain continuity in the negotiations, based on the progress we have made so far ... including the Panmunjom Declaration in April 2018, and the Singapore agreement," Chung said in the interview with PBS.

Chung was referring to the two landmark agreements signed between the two Koreas and between the U.S. and North Korea, respectively. The agreements, in broad terms, commit North Korea to work toward the "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

"If you continue to engage North Korea on the same footing, I think we will be able to make a more substantial progress in the future negotiations," Chung said.

Chung said that he still believes direct engagement with the North at higher levels is "very efficient" in making progress in nuclear talks but that "it's not the time" for Biden and Kim to meet yet.

"I think we need to do more groundwork before the top leaders meet this time," he said.

"I know the United States is now reaching out to North Korea. I hope North Korea will respond to this initiative," Chung added.

Concluding its monthslong policy review on the communist state, U.S. officials have indicated that it will be a "calibrated and practical" approach and will not focus on achieving a grand bargain nor will it rely on strategic patience -- an Obama-era approach of waiting for the North to change its behavior while maintaining pressure.