The U. S. special envoy for North Korea plans to retire on Friday, the State Department said just hours after U. S. President Donald Trump again rejected talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis unless conditions are met.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U. S. special envoy for North Korea plans to retire on Friday, the State Department said just hours after U. S. President Donald Trump again rejected talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis unless conditions are met.
South Korean-born Joseph Yun, a strong advocate for engagement with Pyongyang, has led the U. S. outreach to North Korea, quietly pursuing direct diplomacy, since taking his post under former President Barack Obama in 2016.
His departure leaves the State Department without a point person for North Korea policy at a time Pyongyang has signalled it may be willing to talk to the United States after a period of diplomatic contacts with South Korea during the Winter Olympics.
Yun’s authority to engage with North Korea appeared to be undercut by a tug-of-war between the White House and State Department over North Korea policy under Trump.
Yun told U. S. media his retirement was a personal decision and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had tried to persuade him to stay.
“It is really my decision. The time, I thought, was right,” he told CBS News. “There is a bit of a lull in activity and I thought it would be a good (time) to get out.”
Yun noted that North Korea had “stopped nuclear and missile tests,” CBS said. Pyongyang conducted its biggest and most recent nuclear bomb test in September and its largest and latest missile test in late November.
Analysts called Yun’s departure a big blow to attempts to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis over North Korea’s development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States, which has raised fears of war.
“This is exceptionally bad news,” Frank Jannuzi, an East Asia expert who heads the Mansfield Foundation, said on Twitter. “Joe Yun is the only senior official left at State who has experience dealing with the complexities of North Korea policy.”
Former deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia Abraham Denmark called Yun’s departure “a huge loss for the U. S. government at a critical moment.”
CBS quoted Yun as saying there were no policy differences “per se,” but officials he has dealt with in South Korea told Reuters he had appeared increasingly frustrated with conflicting views within the administration on how to deal with the crisis.
