Experts say Seoul’s overtures to Pyongyang may fray relations with Washington more than they will improve links between the two Koreas
With South Korea’s offer to hold military talks with North Korea already putting the U. S. on edge, experts say Seoul’s move risks further fraying relations with Washington rather than significantly advancing relations between the two Koreas.
In a bid to calm rising border tensions on the Korean Peninsula and ultimately to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, Seoul on Monday proposed holding military talks and separate Red Cross talks with Pyongyang later this week at the heavily guarded border village of Panmunjom. This is the first formal overture to the North under President Moon Jae-in, who was inaugurated in May.
As Seoul looked to engage the Kim Jong Un regime, the Trump administration quickly signaled its discomfort, indicating that current conditions remain insufficient to have dialogue with Pyongyang, which has yet to respond to South Korea’s invitation.
“I think the president has made clear in the past … that any type of conditions that would have to be met are clearly far away from where we are now, ” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told a media briefing on Monday.
There is a divergence of opinion between Washington and Seoul as to how to rein in the North’s expanding nuclear weapons program, with President Donald Trump bent on restraining the Kim regime through sanctions and Moon preferring dialog and engagement.
“The U. S. is unlikely to come out against Moon’s overtures, but Moon’s overtures to Pyongyang will deepen the mistrust and push the U. S closer to cooperating with Japan on North Korea policy, ” said Sung-Yoon Lee, a professor of Korean studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Best-case scenario
Should North Korea respond positively to the proposal, the talks, in the best case, may result in agreements to cease propaganda broadcasts across the border and reopen the military-to-military hotline between Seoul and Pyongyang, which was cut last year after a nuclear test by the North. These and other steps would improve communications and reduce the risk of military clashes between the two sides, according to David Straub, a former State Department Korea expert who is currently at the Sejong Institute in Seoul.
“Genuine dialogue could reduce miscommunications and misunderstanding, ” Straub told VOA’s Korean Service .
