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The Trump administration’s determined strategy to add ‘maximum pressure’ on the secluded nation of North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or DPRK) seems to be working and bearing fruits as for the first time the DPRK has signaled willingness to sit down for talks with its arch-enemy the United States. Since the inauguration in January last year, the Trump administration took toughest ever stance on North Korea, demanding de-nuclearization. Under U.S. leadership, the Un Security Council unanimously passed toughest ever sanctions on North Korea which would see their export revenues decline by almost a third. Sanctions were imposed on North Korea’s energy imports too. And earlier this month, U.S. Treasury announced unilateral sanctions on several entities and as many as 27 ships to prevent Pyongyang from bypassing sanctions via ship to ship transfer.
According to the office of the South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the North Korean envoy, who visited South Korea during the Olympics, where South and North Korean athletes marched together under unification flag, expressed a desire for talks not only with the Southern neighbor but with the United States too.
However, according to a statement released by the White House, the Trump administration would like to see de-nuclearization on the negotiating table before talks begin. Here is the full statement, “President Donald J. Trump’s Administration is committed to achieving the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The United States, our Olympic Host the Republic of Korea, and the international community broadly agree that denuclearization must be the result of any dialogue with North Korea. The maximum pressure campaign must continue until North Korea denuclearizes. As President Trump has said, there is a brighter path available for North Korea if it chooses denuclearization. We will see if Pyongyang’s message today, that it is willing to hold talks, represents the first steps along the path to denuclearization. In the meantime, the United States and the world must continue to make clear that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs are a dead end.”
President Moon, who is eager to engage with North Korea after the Olympic diplomacy turned out to be success said during the meeting with a Chinese envoy that the United States needs to lower the threshold for talks and added that North Korea should indicate a willingness to give up on nuclear ambition.
