Analysts remain skeptical the talks with North Korea will lead to a hoped-for diplomatic breakthrough over its nuclear weapons program.
A high-level South Korean delegation held a historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday, but analysts remain skeptical the talks will lead to a hoped-for diplomatic breakthrough over the North’s nuclear arms program.
It was the first time South Korean officials met personally with Kim and is part of an effort by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to continue an easing of tensions that started last month at the Olympics.
“Sometimes these kinds of discussions really do reduce tensions, but I don’t think they get to the fundamental issues,” said Jeffrey Lewis, an analyst at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
The United States has said North Korea must agree to discuss reducing its nuclear arsenal of weapons and missiles before it will agree to talks. North Korea has said it has no interest in doing so.
“Back in the early 2000s we had a lot of meetings between the North and the South at very high levels but it was just about how the South could give the North money,” said Stephen Tharp, a retired U. S. Army officer with extensive experience in South Korea. “Nothing changed in terms of security or in a political sense either.”
Still, Moon’s efforts at reconciliation seem to have at least cooled some of the heated rhetoric. President Trump last year dismissed Kim as “Little Rocket Man” and threatened to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea.
Kim called Trump a “dotard” and refused to back down on ballistic missile tests.
More recently, Trump has at least signaled a willingness to see if the talks between the two Koreas lead to changes in North Korea’s posture.
