Joseph Yun, a former US envoy for North Korea policy, said he supported the idea of Washington saying ‘we’re willing to discuss certain [sanction] exemptions’Adjusting the US approach would move stalled negotiations forward, the former US envoy said.
The US needs to begin discussing with North Korea the possibility that it will lift sanctions to get the hermit state to take concrete steps towards removing its nuclear weapons, a former top US diplomat for North Korea said on Friday.
Joseph Yun, former US special representative for North Korea policy at the State Department, said he supported the idea of Washington adjusting its message to say “we’re willing to discuss certain [sanction] exemptions” instead of continuing to insist on providing no sanctions relief to the North without “final and fully verified denuclearisation”.
It would “opens up a whole avenue of discussion” to move stalled negotiations forward, the former US envoy told an event at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
Yun made the comment while answering a question from James Schoff, a senior fellow in the Carnegie Asia Programme. Schoff had asked if Yun agreed that the US needed to consider discussing sanctions relief to get progress from North Korea on denuclearisation.
Yun’s comments come hours after North Korea claimed it successfully tested an undisclosed “hi-tech tactical” weapon and had decided to deport a US citizen detained for illegally entering the country.
“It is always a good sign that they want to release American detainees,” Yun said. “They are trying to send that signal.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Friday that the US “appreciates” the cooperation of North Korea and Sweden in bringing about the release of an American citizen.
But North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s supervision of the reported hi-tech weapon’s testing is saying to the US that “we can go either way”, Yun cautioned.
“The testing of the high-tech tactical weapon has been carried out successfully, meeting all superior and powerful designing indicators,” Yonhap news agency reported, citing an announcement from North Korea’s state-run Korean Central Broadcasting Station.
