北美 '대담판' D-9…CVID-CVIG, 합의 어느정도 이루어졌나?
Kim Yong-chol, the high profile North Korean official that met with U.S. President Donald Trump and his Secretary of State is returning home.
He's expected to brief the regime's leader on the trip to New York and Washington.
Not much has been unveiled about the sessions, but according to our Lee Ji-won, the talks were generally quite positive.
Kim Yong-chol, Vice Chairman of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party Central Committee, left New York City late Saturday afternoon, local time, and arrived in Beijing on Sunday... enroute to Pyongyang.
Kim is said to have spent the night at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing and will fly back on Monday.
He had arrived in New York City last Wednesday... holding two days of meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, including official, high-level talks on Thursday.
On Friday, he visited the White House and delivered a personal letter to President Trump from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un,... after which Trump announced that the June 12th summit in Singapore was back on.
With the summit confirmation, the first major diplomatic hurdle seems to have been overcome, but significant differences remain between the two sides.
Due to the range of complex issues at hand,... President Trump has started hinting that the June 12th summit could actually be the first in a series of meetings between the two leaders.
"We're not going to go in and sign something on June 12th. We never were, we're going to start a process... We can go fast or we can go slowly."
The extension of the Panmunjom talks,... where U.S. delegates led by former nuclear negotiator Sung Kim held their fourth round of talks with North Korea on Sunday,... shows "much work" is left to do, as indicated by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week. Some experts say the difficulty lies in bridging the gap between what Kim and Trump can offer each other in the initial phase of negotiations.
"The problem is... we are in the very early stages. Trump wants big, bold promises on denuclearization from North Korea to persuade many of those skeptical of Pyongyang's true intentions. That could include a front-loaded agreement where the North gives up its nuclear weapons first. However,... there's not much Trump can offer Kim at this time as they would likely require Congressional approval or would take a long time."
The expert says bringing an official end to the decades-long Korean War and taking North Korea off the state sponsor of terrorism list could be a couple of things Trump could offer.
But as for economic support,... the lifting of U.S. sanctions would almost certainly have to wait.
Watchers say that might be why President Trump seemed to deflect much of the financial responsibility to the North's three closest neighbors -- South Korea, Japan, and China -- when he spoke to reporters after his meeting with Kim Yong-chol.
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.
