North Korea: US open to talks with rogue nation

THE secretive state got exactly what it wanted with a US offer to sit down and talk without mention of its weapons program ending in a move that has divided experts.

NORTH Korea is getting exactly what it wants with a United States offer to open up dialogue with the regime, critics warn.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stated the need for a “period of calm” in Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic tests before negotiations could begin, leaving the door open for talks with the secretive state.

Mr Tillerson told the Atlantic Council policy forum that North Korea is welcome to talk about anything at a first meeting — even the weather.

“Let’s just meet and let’s talk about the weather if you want and talk about whether it’s going to be a square table or a round table if that’s what you’re excited about,” he said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Mr Tillerson insisted the US-led pressure campaign of economic and diplomatic sanctions would continue until “the first bomb drops”.

However the US State Department insisted its policy on North Korea “has not changed” following Mr Tillerson’s remarks.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has left the door open for talks with North Korea. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

Mr Tillerson’s comments, made on Tuesday, were interpreted by some experts as a softening of the US position.

The Secretary of State said talks could begin “without preconditions”, including without confirmation that Kim Jong-un’s regime will abandon its nuclear program.

It comes despite his comments in August that “a condition of those talks is there is no future where North Korea holds nuclear weapons”.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert insisted Mr Tillerson was not creating a new policy and “our policy remains exactly the same as it was”.

North Korea test fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on November 29, in a major challenge to US President Donald Trump after he slapped fresh sanctions on Pyongyang and declared it a state sponsor of terrorism. Picture: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP

“We remain open to dialogue when North Korea is willing to conduct a credible dialogue on the peaceful denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” she said.

Ms Nauert said “clearly the time is not right now” and the State Department is “on the same page” as the White House on the issue.

US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, also said denuclearisation is “the only viable objective in North Korea”.

“Talks with North Korea won’t be an end in themselves,” he said.

In October, Mr Trump tweeted his Secretary of State was “wasting his time” negotiating with North Korea.

I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2017

The President also said the US would take care of it following North Korea’s most recent ballistic missile launch on November 29.

TAKING CARE OF IT?

New York-based senior Asian adviser Sean King criticised the move towards talks and said North Korea was getting what it wanted without giving up a thing.

Mr King, vice president at Park Strategies, told news.com.au the US should try tougher sanctions first.

“Washington’s chattering classes are embracing Secretary Tillerson for this,” he said, adding the reality was it has appeared as if North Korea’s nuke threat has worked.

“We’re in effect offering Pyongyang an end run around Seoul, assuming the South Korean President even cares without ever having tried real or secondary sanctions,” Mr King said.

“President Trump’s admittedly done more on North Korea sanctions than his predecessors did but he still doesn’t act nearly as tough as he talks. What about ‘taking care of it’? Is this what he meant?”

Mr King also questioned why there was no preconditions for talks.

North Korea launched the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile last month which it claimed was capable of reaching the US mainland. Picture: AFP/KCNA

“I don’t think all-out war was ever a real likelihood/option to begin with,” he said.

“That said, these proposed talks are not a step in the right direction. At least, not before we’ve tried real sanctions and/or at least asked for American captives held by North Korea in return.

“Please remember we’d levied much stronger sanctions on Iran, including true secondary sanctions that we haven’t yet put on Pyongyang-enabler Beijing, before entering into any talks with Tehran.”

PREFERABLE TO WAR

On respected North Korea analysis site 38 North, Dr Georgy D Toloraya writes that there’s still a chance for diplomacy to head off a conflict over the country’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The director of Korean Programs at the Institute of Economy at the Russian Academy of Science said Pyongyang’s declaration that it has completed its nuclear force signals its readiness for dialogue.

The North, he writes, has a nuclear deterrent and they want a guarantee they won’t be destroyed by the US.

However Dr Toloraya said the window of opportunity for talking with the North was closing and with the Winter Olympic Games approaching it was a good opportunity for a truce.

Chillingly, he warns there is no option other than diplomacy and the DPRK will not give up its nuclear weapons anytime soon.

South Korean special warfare soldiers take part in an anti-terror drill ahead of PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, to be held in February. Picture: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP

“At the end of the day, a nuclear but peaceful Korean peninsula would be a better outcome than a war-torn Northeast Asia,” he writes.

CHANCE FOR PEACE

Nuclear disarmament campaigner John Hallam said this was a vital chance to engage with the secretive regime.

“I have said consistently that yes, absolutely, we should engage in talks about talks and we should engage in talks absolutely without preconditions,” he said.

“But without preconditions means without preconditions, and it’s all too easy to sabotage or self-sabotage such talks by surreptitiously or even unconsciously importing preconditions such as ‘they must stop testing’ which they won’t do.”

Mr Hallam said the DPRK will keep testing regardless and the more the west tried to stop them, the more they would test.

“In the longer run, the DPRK itself has many times made it clear that it would like very much to improve its relationship with the US,” he said.

“So the possibility of talks is something that should be grasped. It’s a window of opportunity to at least take down the temperature and make military hostilities — which will be catastrophic — less likely.

“Such talks must be absolutely and completely condition-free and must be Twitter-free.”

Jon Rainwater, executive director of California-based Peace Action, said in a statement such talks could be just what we need to de-escalate tensions and jump-start the diplomatic process and urged North Korea to accept the olive branch.

“The successful Iran nuclear agreement was only possible because the US and Iran were willing to come to the negotiating table without preconditions,” he said.

“The Iran agreement also couldn’t have worked without a mutual effort to set aside past differences and work step by step to find common ground. The same could be said for any future nuclear agreement with North Korea.”

— With wires

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