[Interview file] Vegan's advice on leaving... "North Korea must know the limits of practical negotiations without authority

Deputy Secretary of State Vegan, the US Secretary of State, who led the two summits between the United States and the United States, completed a'farewell visit to Korea schedule' with a dinner with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha yesterday.

During his visit to Korea, Vice Minister Vegan also gave his last lecture as a representative of the US for working-level negotiations in North America.

In his lecture, Vegan generously confessed the regrets and limitations he felt as a negotiating representative, as well as his advice to North Korea and his advice to South Korea.

I have summarized the main contents of the lecture, which was like a memoir looking back on the past two and a half years.

Vegan had no progress in the dialogue between the two sides after the Singapore-North Korea summit in June 2018, and as a result, the negotiation power of the North Korean working-level team due to the collapse of the Hanoi talks in February 2019. I picked the point that there was not.

It was pointed out that Kim Hyuk-cheol, who was a counterpart of the North at the time of the Hanoi talks, had no full control over the denuclearization negotiations.

"The problem with the last talks in Hanoi was that the North Korean negotiating team did not have the authority and ability to discuss denuclearization," said Biegun. "Consultation between the leaders is also important to prepare the conditions for the summit, but before that, progress that can be agreed upon. It's important that the working-level staff create the room. (But) we couldn't."

He said, "If the North Korean negotiating team had more authority, it would have made great progress" and "I hope North Korea learns this."

Actually, Kim Hyuk-cheol is known to have no discretion in negotiations.

At the time, an official in the government recalled, "It was the impression that all decisions were to be left to Pyongyang's judgment. There seemed to be little discretion."

Since there was no discretion of North Korean practitioners, it was difficult to make progress in the negotiations that were short of time, and as a result, a situation where'real negotiations' began at the top level, rather than the working level, was produced.

A source familiar with the situation at the time said, "The problem in Hanoi is that the denuclearization issue could not be discussed at all in the working-level negotiations," and said, "The key will be how much North Korea will give full control to the working-level negotiation representatives in the future."

Vegan's advice that the working-level should be given power to negotiate needs to be taken deeply by North Korea.

This is because the US Biden administration, which will be launched next month, has also repeatedly expressed its recognition that it places great importance on working-level negotiations.

President-elect Biden said at the last presidential candidate debate, "I am willing to meet if Kim Jong-un agrees to reduce nuclear capabilities for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," and through the questions and answers of the US Foreign Relations Commission CFR, he empowered the working-level negotiation team. I have emphasized that I will give.

This is the position of the United States, which is the position of the United States, “We must go through working-level negotiations step by step.” North Korea must give the working group discretion to discuss denuclearization, even in order to sit face to face with the United States.

It seems important to set up a negotiating team with'full authority' in advance, at least by the middle of next year, when the Biden administration is expected to review North Korea policy and prepare a negotiation team.

Vegan also emphasized that we must agree on the final goal and create a roadmap for North Korea.

The subject of the final goal was not written, but it seems that denuclearization was in mind.

In his lecture, Vegan said, "We need to agree on the roadmap for action and the ultimate goal of the roadmap."

In addition, in the question and answer that followed, "(Both North Korea and the United States) you should not expect anyone on both sides to do everything until you do something, but you can expect a roadmap." "We need big, bold ideas."

"We need to agree on the final goal and create a roadmap," emphasized by Vegan, which is also the position the United States has taken.

It is necessary to clarify the final stage of denuclearization and to stop nuclear activities while negotiations are in progress for that goal, and if such an agreement is reached, a'simultaneous and parallel implementation' to ease sanctions and advance relations in line with the progress of denuclearization. I will.

In other words, the U.S. idea is to first discuss the'denuclearization' of the four terms of the June 12, 2018 joint statement in Singapore, agree on the final goal of denuclearization, and then create a roadmap containing corresponding measures for each stage.

On the other hand, North Korea is in a position that the establishment of a'new relationship' agreed in Paragraph 1 of the Joint Statement in Singapore should be treated as a top priority.

In other words, rather than the'denuclearization' issue that the US wants, it is necessary to first establish a'new relationship' through trust building.

This is also what North Korea has been asking for over the past 10 years.

At the Stockholm talks in October 2019, North Korea demanded a new calculation method from the United States, and demanded three major reasons: lifting sanctions against North Korea, halting combined military training between the ROK and the U.S., and halting the introduction of advanced weapons into the Korean peninsula. Further increased.

He expressed his position that negotiations with the North American North American negotiations can be resumed only when the'hostile policy against North Korea', which covers the lifting of sanctions and guarantees the security of the North Korean regime.

Since then, North Korea's position has remained unchanged.

As if North Korea was conscious of this prerequisite for dialogue, Vegan did not hesitate to sound bitter.

"Everyone might be wondering if I was disappointed that I hadn't done so in the last two years," said Vegan. "Unfortunately, North Korean counterparts have spent the last two years trying to find obstacles to negotiations instead of seizing countless opportunities. Wasted."

“North Korea is facing important diplomatic events such as the 8th Party Congress of the Labor Party in January next year,” he said. “I strongly urge North Korea to open a way to resume diplomacy until then.”

Vegan stressed that the ROK-US alliance must evolve toward Korea, and honest dialogue is necessary for this.

"The ROK-U.S. alliance, which has long focused on defending South Korea from North Korea, needs to go beyond this," said Vegan. "There is a common interest in developing a free and open Indo-Pacific region where sovereign states are not coerced. I said.

Vegan didn't specify China here, but it seems to have in fact emphasized that the ROK-US alliance should become a broader concept of responding to China's threats beyond North Korea.

Vegan predicted that "the advanced ROK-US alliance will help resolve the disagreement between the two countries over the transition of defense cost contributions and wartime operational control."

In addition, Vegan drew attention by quoting the passage that Ambassador Lee Soo-hyuk mentioned in the lecture, "Because Korea chose the United States 70 years ago, it will not continue to choose the United States for the next 70 years." Dragged.

"We will all agree that the alliance based on the strategic grounds of the past 70 years will not work in the next 70 years," he said. "More efforts are needed to continue the alliance for the next 70 years." He stressed that honest discussions between the two governments must take place in order to create a strategic basis.

For the first time in the past two and a half years as a special representative to North Korea, Vegan made a long comment on North Korean human rights issues.

Vegan expressed regret for not dealing with human rights issues, saying, "I hoped that if progress was made in each section of the Singapore Joint Statement, we also wanted to deal with sensitive issues such as human rights issues."

He said, "The secretary's most memorable achievement was the release of three US citizens detained in North Korea, but not everyone was able to return," he said.

"The son of Fred Warmbier and Cindy Warmbier, whom I met last year, was unjustly imprisoned in North Korea for tragic abuse, and he could not return safely." Said.

Tens of thousands of Koreans and Korean-Americans are passing by painfully waiting for the day to see their relatives left in North Korea again, and in Japan, Shigeru Yokota died this year after waiting for decades to reunite with her daughter Megumi (abducted by North Korea). "There are people in the United States waiting for a proper goodbye to their families, like Ensign Jesse Brown," he said. "The legacy left by Oto and Shigeru and Jesse and the hopes of separated families waiting for 70 years show the desperateness of what we do." .  

(Photo = Yonhap News)