US-North Korea diplomacy stalled when Trump stopped negotiating

[soryang]

US-North Korea diplomacy stalled when Trump stopped negotiating
BY DANIEL DEPETRIS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 04/30/19 01:30 PM EDT

...Despite differences in style and Trump’s willingness to meet with North Korea’s leader, the Trump administration’s bottom-line position is indistinguishable from every U.S. administration over the last three decades: If North Korea wants to normalize its relations with the U.S., integrate economically with the rest of East Asia, and enjoy peace with its neighbors, it must give up all of its weapons of mass destruction and dismantle its entire ballistic missile capability. This is the position of national security advisor John Bolton — it demands Pyongyang capitulate immediately, completely and unreservedly to American demands for the mere prospect of concessions.

It should go without saying that this strategy has failed time and time again, just as it predictably failed in Hanoi. And yet, like clockwork, Washington continues to insist on the same bankrupted formula under the delusional theory that economic sanctions will force Kim to part ways with his regime’s nuclear security blanket.

With a position like this, it simply won’t matter who is negotiating on behalf of the United States. Whether it is Mike Pompeo, Stephen Biegun, Henry Kissinger, or the great George Marshall, the result will be the same unless the objectives adjust to strategic reality and common sense.

While the world would be better off if North Korea didn’t possess nuclear weapons, that ship sailed long ago...

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/441374-us-north-korea-diplomacy-stalled-when-trump-stopped-negotiating

[soryang]

1. Biegun will head back to South Korea for talks with the working group

S. Korea-US coordinating visit to Seoul by Stephen Biegun: May.2,2019 15:26 KST

US special representative for N. Korea to discuss ways to resume NK-US dialogue
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_northkorea/892389.html

South Korea and the US are working on a plan for Stephen Biegun, the US State Department’s special representative for North Korea, to visit the South on May 8-10, the Hankyoreh learned on May 1...

Hope springs eternally in South Korea. As a practical matter, Biegun lost all credibility in Hanoi.