The Trump administration is haranguing South Korea for taking steps the U.S. had already agreed to. The New York Times believes that North Korea's insistence of sticking to signed agreements is a means of war. This only unites the two Koreas and does not bode well for the alliance.
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North Korea Weaponizes Its Deal With Trump to Tangle Talks
In hailing the deal he reached with Kim Jong-un this summer in Singapore, President Trump said it “largely solved” the North Korean nuclear crisis.
He has since doubled down on that statement, most recently on Tuesday. “People don’t realize the importance of the first meeting,” he said. “I mean, we said, ‘Point No. 1: denuclearization.’ They’ve agreed to denuclearization.”
It was actually the third bullet point in the four-point Singapore agreement, and for the North Koreans, the order of those bullet points is everything. It will only agree to denuclearize once Washington commits to the first and second points: Mr. Trump’s promise to build “new” relations and a “peace regime” in Korea — and makes North Korea feel secure enough to disarm.
The standoff shows how North Korea has turned the deal Mr. Trump signed with its leader, Mr. Kim, into one of its most effective cudgels in talks with Washington over denuclearization, ceaselessly flaunting it to force American concessions.
The highlighted paragraph is the first time the New York Times admits that the Singapore agreement is indeed a numbered list of tasks that are to be taken step by step.
Moon of Alabama explained the sequence proscribed in the Singapore Statement, which is also included in the inter-Korean Panmunjom Declaration, back in July: Pyongyang Talks – How Pompeo Put The Cart Before The Horse. Ignoring the agreed upon sequencing was the reason why the talks Secretary of State Pompeo held in Pyongyang nearly failed.
The hawks in the Trump administration tried to ignore the Singapore Statement as soon as it was signed. They wanted to jump to point 3 – North Korea's aspirational commitment of eventual denuclearization – before the U.S. even starts to fulfill the concrete measures it committed to in point 1 and 2 – establishing diplomatic relations and a peace agreement. The U.S. mainstream media supported the administration's false and a-historic interpretation that claimed that denuclearization comes first. It insisted on ignoring the sequence and wording of the Singapore Statement. The only exception was an op-ed by a Duyeon Kim in Foreign Policy.
We welcome the NYT to the small club of those who acknowledge the reality of the Joint Statement. But how is North Korean insistence on the written agreement "weaponizing" it? How can an amicably agreed and signed sequencing be a "cudgel"? Who is really trying to "tangle" the issue? The piece does not give any substance that supports its diction.
It is the Trump administration, and the main stream media who support its fudging, that deviates from the agreements. It is the U.S. that is in the wrong here, not North Korea.
Other countries accept the sequencing and the necessity to start with point 1 and 2. A recent joint press release by the deputy foreign ministers of China, Russia and the DPRK emphasizes it:
The three parties shared the understanding that such processes should be ensured to progress in a stage-by-stage and simultaneous way while giving precedence to confidence-building and that they should be accompanied by corresponding measures by the countries concerned.
China and Russia want to adjust the international sanctions to honor the steps North Korea has already taken.
President Moon Jae-in of South Korea also insist on following the signed agreements. But when he recently took steps to fulfill the inter-Korean Panmunjom Declaration, which Trump had endorsed, the U.S. intervened.
Moon needs to lift some sanction his country had put onto the north in 2010, to allow for the resumption of aid to North Korea. Trump rejected that in a rather humiliating way:
“Well, they won’t do it without our approval,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday when asked about reports Seoul is considering the idea. “They do nothing without our approval.”
Even the right leaning Korea Times found that insulting:
While Washington leads the international community's sanctions regime on Pyongyang, Trump's excessive remarks are seen as denying South Korean sovereignty.
In a just revealed earlier incident Pompeo reportedly even used swear words in a phone call with South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha:
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo furiously harangued Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha in a telephone call on Sept. 17 about South Korea's rapid rapprochement with North Korea.
A diplomatic source in Washington said, "Pompeo was informed of the terms to be agreed on during the inter-Korean summit and became very angry that he was not consulted in advance on issues that could have a major impact on the U.S." The source added Pompeo "used strong language" in the phone call with Kang.
Pompeo was incensed by plans to begin reconnecting severed inter-Korean railways and a cross-border military agreement that aims at reducing arms along the border.
The reconnection of the railways and the military agreements to avoid conflicts in the demilitarized zone follow directly from the Panmunjom Declaration. The Declaration was formerly endorsed in the Singapore Statement Trump himself signed. It is ridiculous that the U.S. claims it was not informed about these steps and that it blocks the necessary procedures.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha
Pompeo especially came off as the bully he is. Washington's pressure was successful though – for now. South Korea's government stepped back and said that the lifting of its sanctions is not imminent. But it insists on fulfilling the agreements with the north which will require to take this step.
Korean media warn that the boarish American behavior may well destroy the alliance:
It would be best for Pompeo to clarify whether he used improper language.
If he did, he should apologize. If he didn't, his clarification would suffice.
Korea and the U.S. have been allies in good times and bad. If that tradition of alliance is kept, manners are adhered to, or it could end up among the first cracks that lead to its collapse.
The inter-Korean politics of Moon Jae-in are supported by more than two-thirds of the South Korean population. The conservative Liberty Korea Party, which supports Washington's hawkish stand, recently polled below 20%. Everyone but the U.S. believes that unilateral denuclearization is a fantasy and that only accepting peace can defuse the problem. If this haranguing by Washington continues, South Korea may well act on its own.