Diplomats and experts in nuclear policy are already based in the Austrian capital, which could serve as a platform to advance the stalled talks
Amid movement between Washington and Pyongyang on what US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently termed the “rapid denuclearisation” of North Korea, former senior US diplomats involved in nuclear policy said a possible road to success could run through Vienna.
As part of his efforts to “mark the beginning of negotiations to transform” relations, Pompeo last month invited North Korean representatives to meet his special envoy, Stephen Biegun, in Vienna – home to the UN’s nuclear weapon watchdog agency – “at the earliest opportunity”.
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The US is demanding a complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear weapon programmes, and says sanctions will remain until that happens.
Last week the UN General Assembly meetings, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho criticised that approach. “The problem is that the continued sanctions are deepening our mistrust,” he said.
A commentary carried by North Korea’s official news agency on Tuesday suggested that Washington should lift sanctions; formally declare an end to the Korean war, which was halted by an armistice in 1953; and build mutual trust.
The US State Department has yet to announce any travels by Biegun to Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is based.
The envoy told the South Korean Yonhap news agency on Tuesday that he would accompany Pompeo to Pyongyang this weekend. It is a trip Pompeo described on Wednesday as “another chance to continue to advance the commitment” and “build out a pathway for denuclearisation”.
Thomas Countryman, former assistant secretary of state for international security and non-proliferation from 2011 to 2017, said that Biegun’s future travel to Vienna “represents an opportunity for the two sides to work on these extremely complex issues and to make the kind of detailed agreement that will move us forward”.
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After US President Donald Trump made the North Korean nuclear threat a top priority last year, Washington began diplomatic communication with Pyongyang through two major channels: official talks in New York and unofficial dialogues in third countries.
The former, known as the New York channel, is facilitated by North Korea’s mission to the United Nations headquarters, in the absence of formal ties between the two countries.
