North Korea urged to implement nuclear pledges

South Korea and the US urge North Korea to implement the disarmament pledges it made in past talks,

A South Korean artillery post in 1951. Picture: AFP

South Korea and the US urged North Korea to implement the disarmament pledges it made in past talks, saying on Thursday the allies will keep pushing for diplomacy aimed at achieving the North’s complete denuclearisation.

A joint statement, issued by South Korean Defence Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and US ­Defence Secretary Mark Esper, comes a day after North Korea ­abruptly announced it would suspend steps that would have nullified 2018 tension-reduction deals and further raised animosities on the Korean peninsula.

In the statement primarily marking the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, Mr Jeong and Mr Esper called on North Korea to “meet its commitments in alignment with” the joint statements issued after US-North Korea summit talks in Singapore in June 2018 and inter-Korean talks in September 2018.

In the joint statement issued after the Singapore summit with President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country “commits to work ­toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula” without specifying how and when disarmament steps would take place.

The North used similar language when it demanded the US to withdraw its 28,500 troops from South Korea and end regular military drills as a precondition for its nuclear disarmament.

Subsequent US-North Korea talks, including two more Kim-Trump summits, have reported little progress, as North Korea said it won’t unilaterally disarm unless the US lifts sanctions on it and provide security guarantees.

In recent weeks, North Korea turned to provocations targeting South Korea. It cut off all communication lines with the South, blew up a Seoul-built liaison office on its territory and threatened to take steps to nullity the 2018 deals meant to ease tensions at the border. Among the threatened North Korean steps were resuming military drills, reinstalling guard posts, sending troops to shut inter-Korean co-operation sites along border with South Korea, as well as flying propaganda leaflets toward the South. On Wednesday, however, the North said Kim had put off taking such action after military leaders “took stock of the prevailing situation.”

Experts say North Korea may be trying to leave room for South Korean concessions or may be worried about unexpectedly stronger responses from Seoul, whose help it may need again when it wants to reach out to the US for future talks.

AP