In other words, it's the basic step by step method versus the all or nothing, no concessions, no trust building approach favored by neo-cons Bolton and Pompeo. US officials, elected or otherwise, and Korea "experts" inside the beltway echo chamber just can't get their heads around this issue. Either that, or they just want regime change in North Korea and can't imagine bargaining with the communist dictatorship under any circumstances. Kim Hyun Jong mentions top down dialogue with favor, because he knows who the problem officials are on the US side. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung Hwa is returning to South Korea from her talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It is unlikely any progress was made at that level. They discussed the agenda for the Moon-Trump summit coming up April 11. What if anything transpired with Stephen Beigun in Beijing is still unknown. The South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo will meet with acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan on Monday. He will then meet with CSIS "Korean experts."
Tony Dalton, Director, Nuclear Policy Division, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, made a similar point to Kim Hyun Jong's about this fixation of the definition of denuclearization being an obstacle to progress on VOA's Washington Talk show, March 30. If you can't agree on a process, then you're not going to make any progress on substantive matters.
Jenny Town on the neo-cons' hardline act at Hanoi, quoted in Reuters just recently:
“This is what Bolton wanted from the beginning and it clearly wasn’t going to work,” Town said. “If the U.S. was really serious about negotiations they would have learned already that this wasn’t an approach they could take.”
Town added, “It’s already been rejected more than once, and to keep bringing it up ... would be rather insulting. It’s a non-starter and reflects absolutely no learning curve in the process.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-document-exclusive/exclusive-with-a-piece-of-paper-trump-called-on-kim-to-hand-over-nuclear-weapons-idUSKCN1RA2NR
This article was part of an "exclusive" in Reuters. This blog published an analysis of the US bait and switch act in Hanoi, here, on March 14.
Update: In anticipation of his upcoming summit with President Trump, South Korean President Moon Jae In gave his characteristic positive statements one would expect in the difficult situation he finds himself in currently vis a vis the US and North Korean denuclearization negotiations. After engaging in hopeful aspirations, recounting the improvement of the situation since the crisis in 2017, President Moon made one enigmatic comment (reported in NKnews.org): "We will make our own way if a road is blocked, and we will step forward to carve a path if there is no way." He also spoke positively about top down negotiations and indirectly criticized US officials in this respect as reported by NKnews:
The South Korean President however, criticized some for "attempting to reverse the flow of peace on the Korean peninsula," and attempting to "return to the past of conflict and confrontation."
https://www.nknews.org/2019/04/north-korea-and-the-u-s-still-committed-to-diplomacy-south-korean-president-says/ (paywall)
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