WASHINGTON – North Korea offers to give up nukes in exchange for securityguarantees
North Korea has said it would consider abandoning nuclear weapons inexchange for security guarantees, a South Korean envoy says.
Following a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Chung Eui-yong,the national security adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, saidon Tuesday that Pyongyang was willing to abandon its nuclear weapons “ifmilitary threats towards the North are cleared and the security of itsregime is guaranteed.”
“The North made clear its willingness for the denuclearization of theKorean peninsula, and made clear that there is no reason to own nuclear(programmes) if military threats towards the North are cleared and thesecurity of its regime is guaranteed,” Chung said.
The South Korean official added that Kim and Moon would meet in late Aprilat the fortified border village of Panmunjom to discuss a range of issues.”The South and the North agreed to hold the third summit at… Panmunjom inlate April.”
The previous two summits were held in 2000 and 2007.
The leaders will have their first phone conversation before the plannedsummit, he added. North Korea also pledged that it would freeze its nuclearand missile testing program during the period of dialogue.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Chung said the two sides would establish aleader-to-leader hotline to “defuse military tension and to have closecoordination.”
Tensions have been high between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea’smissile and nuclear programs.
Washington claims it prefers a diplomatic solution to crisis, but it hasrepeatedly threatened Pyongyang with military action.
After months of soaring tensions that have seen US President Donald Trumptrade insults and threats with North Korea, temperatures cooleddramatically as South Korea hosted the Winter Olympics.
Inspired by Moon’s policy of reducing tension with the North, South Koreaused the recently-held Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang as a majoropportunity to open the doors for dialogue.
The games in fact came amid some unprecedented escalation of hostilitiesbetween the North on one side and the United States and allies in Asia onthe other. There was even a risk of an all-out nuclear confrontation in theregion late last year when Pyongyang carried out a series of massivenuclear and missile tests.
North Korea in late February censured the latest round of sanctions imposedby Washington against Pyongyang as an “act of war,” accusing the USadministration of trying to undermine an improvement in inter-Koreanrelations triggered by the Winter Olympic Games in the South.
The condemnation came after the US Treasury blacklisted more than 50 NorthKorea-linked shipping companies, vessels, and trade businesses, imposing anasset freeze and barring US citizens from dealing with them.
North and South Korea have been separated by a heavily-militarized bordersince the three-year Korean War came to an end in 1953. The conflict endedwith an armistice rather than a formal peace treaty and left many familiesseparated at the two sides.