North Korea may also be trying to influence South Korean politics. By dangling the prospect of renewed inter-Korean talks, North Korea “hopes to make Seoul work harder to satisfy the (North Korean) regime and break from Washington,” said Duyeon Kim.
and international sanctions, which were put in place because of North Korea’s illicit nuclear weapons program. In this file photo taken on June 30, 2019, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (L) and US President Donald Trump shake hands during a meeting on the south side of the Military Demarcation Line.Īlthough Moon has since said he is open to reviving cross-border economic projects, his government has been restrained from doing so by U.S. When U.S.-North Korea talks broke down in 2019, the North also grew angry with Seoul, essentially freezing Moon’s peace ambitions. The meetings helped pave the way for Kim’s summits with then-U.S. Moon held three summits with Kim Jong Un in 2018. “Pyongyang is taking advantage of Moon’s desperation to leave behind a Korean peace legacy before March,” said Duyeon Kim, a Seoul-based Korea specialist at the Center for a New American Security.
But with such projects made more difficult by the coronavirus pandemic, the North has recently pushed for other concessions, such as a permanent end to U.S.-South Korea military exercises.įrom North Korea’s perspective, now may be the perfect time to maximize pressure on South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is in the final months of his single term in office. The facility based in the North provided South Korean companies with cheap labor from North Korea. The North has long wanted South Korea to provide economic help through the resumption of inter-Korean projects, such as the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Complex. The North Korean strategy appears designed to pressure South Korea to break with the United States, its treaty ally, according to many analysts. invitations as a “cunning” distraction meant to disguise U.S. In a speech last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dismissed the U.S. offers to hold talks without preconditions. North Korea has rejected or ignored near-daily U.S. Seoul’s Ministry of Unification, which handles ties with the North, said it believes Pyongyang’s decision to reopen the hotlines will lay the foundation for an extended period of friendlier cross-border relations.īut even as it reaches out to South Korea, the North has given no indication it wants to restart talks with the United States. South Korea’s left-leaning government, which for two years has tried to coax North Korea back to talks, is cautiously optimistic. The two Koreas remain in a technical state of war, since their 1950s conflict ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty. North Korean officials have also signaled bigger moves may be coming, including another summit between the countries’ top leaders and talks on ending their formal state of war.
North Korea this week took initial steps toward improving ties with South Korea, restoring hotlines meant to manage inter-Korean tensions. After nearly two years of international isolation worsened by a severe pandemic lockdown, North Korea is hinting it may finally be ready for dialogue - just not with the United States.