Richard Johnson appeared with standard guest Scott Snyder on VOA's Washington Talk program this weekend. Johnson emphasized the need for working level talks among experts between North Korea and the US to get a realistic plan for implementation of steps to denuclearize North Korea. An experienced participant in nuclear negotiations with JCPOA and Six Party experience, he also pointed out that China thinks in terms of years and years in a negotiating process. He opined that the Trump administration was seeking tangible results within his term, using a top down method. His opinion was that this was impractical and ineffective. Mr. Johnson also referred to the first Singapore summit and the parallel simultaneous approach envisioned in the joint statement produced which included security matters and normalization of relations in addition to denuclearization measures. Mr. Johnson suggested sending a US team of technical experts to Yongbyun to get things started. He also mentioned that having an international team of technical experts for verification of any steps taken in the denuclearization process might be better received by North Korea. Mr. Snyder emphasized that China had yet to present a tangible detailed plan for denuclearization of North Korea. Also that it was up to the North Koreans to make "the next move." This VOA Washington Talk podcast video is available in English on youtube. This was a better than average program for the VOA due to Mr. Johnson's presence.
The US hasn't done much in the way of preparing a realistic plan for denuclearization either because it can't get past the fundamental differences concerning the negotiating process itself. The US focus has been on the "big deal" top down approach, with a view toward public relations and domestic political consumption. Thae Yong Ho, the well known diplomatic defector from North Korea believes that Xi may have a proposal to transmit to the US at the upcoming G20 meeting in Osaka. Thae has been emphasizing that Trump's focus is using the possibility of a third summit with Kim Jong Un as an election campaign strategy.
Jong Se Hyun, former Unification Minister for South Korea, opined that the Chinese North Korean summit was an unwelcome development. Previously, he took a negative view of the outcome of the Hanoi summit, specifically blaming John Bolton for the failure. Apparently, he sees Xi's Pyongyang visit as part of a deteriorating climate for negotiations, in which the North Korean stalemate becomes a card for China to play, in response to US pressure in respect to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other geo-political issues, and the overarching trade dispute. Jong emphasized the problematic one dimensional approach of the US toward the denuclearization issue as opposed to the normalization and security issues also presented in the Singapore joint statement. The US position is a demand for North Korean denuclearization first for promises of normalization, security and economic benefits, later. In Jong's view US failure to move forward on all the issues, by the end of the year, will force North Korea to adhere to the Chinese for security and economic support. He said the US should restart talks with North Korea as soon as practicable, and avoid entangling the negotiations with fourth party China issues.
An English language Arirang News report on youtube noted the presence of "Choe Ryong-hae, the 1st Vice Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, and Premier Kim Jae-ryong at the table with the Chinese delegation for direct talks implying that economic as well as political issues were discussed." * Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho was also present.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuGQNkLjUu8
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