After a senior U.S. official in charge of nuclear policy raised some eyebrows by stating that Washington would be willing to engage in arms-control negotiations with Pyongyang, the country said on Friday that its stance towards North Korea had not changed.
Some experts contend that in order to have these discussions, North Korea must be acknowledged as a nuclear-armed state, which Pyongyang wants. Washington, though, has long maintained that North Korea’s nuclear program is unconstitutional and subject to UN penalties.
At a Washington nuclear conference on Thursday, Bonnie Jenkins, the undersecretary of state for arms control, was questioned about when North Korea should be considered an issue for arms control.
Arms control is always an option if there are two willing countries willing to sit down at a table and talk, she retorted. “If they would have a conversation with us.
“And not just arms control, but risk reduction as well as all the many types of weapons control we may engage in with them before signing a regular arms control treaty. We have made it very plain to the DPRK that we are willing to speak with them and do not have any requirements “She said, using the initials of North Korea’s official name.
She said, referring to Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea: “We wouldn’t say no if he picked up the phone and said, “I want to talk about arms limitation.” If anything, I believe we should investigate what that entails.”
In light of the upcoming midterm elections early next month, the Biden administration is worried that North Korea may be poised to begin nuclear bomb testing for the first time since 2017. This would be extremely undesirable. US requests for North Korea to resume negotiations were denied.
Ned Price, a spokesman for the State Department, responded to Jenkins’ comment as follows: “In this regard, I want to be very clear. The American policy hasn’t changed at all.”
Price stated that American policy was unchanged “We continue to be open to diplomacy with the DPRK, we continue to reach out to the DPRK, and we’re dedicated to pursuing a diplomatic strategy,” the statement continued. Without any requirements, we are willing to meet, and we urge the DPRK to pursue serious and prolonged diplomacy.”
A trap set by Kim Jong Un.
Further top State Department arms-control official, Alexandra Bell, emphasized that there had been no change in U.S. policy in her remarks on Friday at the same nuclear policy conference Jenkins addressed.
When asked if it was time to recognize North Korea as a nuclear power, she retorted, “Words aside, we are committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We do not accept North Korea with that status, but we are interested in having a conversation with the North Koreans.”
Jenkins had “fallen straight into Kim Jong Un’s trap” with her comments, according to Daniel Russel, the senior U.S. ambassador for East Asia under former President Barack Obama and currently at the Asia Society.
“It’s a tremendous mistake to suggest that North Korea merely needs to agree to talk to the U.S. about arms control and risk reduction,” he added. “It shifts the debate from North Korea’s right to possess nuclear weapons to the issue of how many it should have and how they are used.”
Nothing would make Kim happier than to forward his plan for risk reduction, which calls for the removal of American forces from Korea.
Jenkins’ comments were downplayed by other academics.
Executive director of the United States-based Arms Control Association Daryl Kimball stated that she was not announcing that North Korea is a nuclear weapons state as defined by the international Non-Proliferation Treaty.
She was recognizing, as have other government officials, that North Korea does possess nuclear weapons, but that they are being used against them in defiance of the NPT’s prohibition on the development of nuclear weapons, he told Reuters.
Kimball and Toby Dalton, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the organization that organized the nuclear conference, stated that they did not consider formal recognition as a nuclear-armed state as a requirement for arms-control discussions. Jenkins, according to Dalton, seemed to be effectively restating the U.S. position that it was open to speaking with Pyongyang without restrictions.
