Break through in discussions with North Korea

 It is the first time that Biegun has met Choe for working-level denuclearization talks since he became the U.S. nuclear envoy in August last year.South Korea's top nuclear envoy, Lee Do-hoon, also arrived in Sweden on Friday for possible three-way negotiations with them as a potential mediator in denuclearization talks.,Sweden Foriegn Ministry Department and Cabinet Secretary are hosting the discusion.

ome have floated an idea of a small package deal that may involve the North shutting down or freezing operations at the Yongbyon nuclear complex and dismantling intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in exchange for Washington's partial sanctions relief.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, “While the president is promising dialogue with Chairman Kim, we still await concrete steps by North Korea to dismantle the nuclear weapons that threaten our people and our allies in the region,” Pence said in an address to U.S. ambassadors and other senior American diplomats at the State Department." 

MOSCOW, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Russian Ambassador to Pyongyang Alexander Matsegora on Friday dismissed U.S. claims about the alleged acquisition of Russian missile defense technology by Pyongyang as artificial and unfounded, Sputnik reported.

SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- South Korea and the United States on Thursday held a working-group meeting via video conference to discuss the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) issues, local media reported citing the Foreign Ministry.

An unnamed official from the ministry was quoted as saying that the South Korea-U.S. working group discussed pending issues, including the inter-Korean cooperation and relations between Seoul and Pyongyang and between Pyongyang and Washington, through video conference in the morning .

Trump might win a Nobel if this comes to frustration.

Times man of the year anyway.

SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Wednesday that if a second summit between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States, and the DPRK leader's Seoul visit take place, they would greatly help advance the Korean Peninsula's denuclearization, the inter-Korean relations and the settlement of permanent peace.

And to be fair The United Nations have been passing resolutions

and exchanging dialogue about this very Idea of permanent peace in Korea since 1950. 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-lands-probe-far-side-moon-state-tv-060024146.html

This is what brought Kim un to the Party on January 4th.

Swedish news agency TT said the talks take place at a conference center on Lake Malaren northwest of Stockholm, lasting until Jan. 22. on January 22 all parties will be discussing peace treaties in the far east. As Japan and Russsia will have a heads of state meeting in Moscow.

Senior Japanese and U.S. diplomats will discuss North Korea when they meet in Sweden early this week, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday, as Washington and Pyongyang prepare for a second summit next month.

Kenji Kanasugi, director-general of the ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, hopes to be updated on arrangements for the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his talks with Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea.

source Japan Times newsfeed

21 Jan 2019

4:22

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday urged the United States to pursue diplomacy with North Korea, promising his country would provide all possible assistance to the second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump.

“Now our interest is in the outcome of the second North Korea-U.S. summit. Though we may not know the outcome right now, one certain thing is that international political conditions surrounding the Korean Peninsula are changing rapidly,” Moon on Monday.

“This is the first opportunity that has been presented to us in 65 years since the end of the Korean War in 1953, and one that may never come again. We must take advantage of this opportunity, no matter what. We must take this opportunity and peacefully resolve the North Korean nuclear issue,” he urged.

Breitbart TV

Japan's response: sputnik news (Moscow)

follow up Mongolian working level discussions.

It also reported that Kono and Pompeo had confirmed their readiness to cooperate for the fast resolution of the problem of the Japanese citizens abducted in the past by North Korean intelligence services. © AP Photo / Pyongyang Press Corps Pool

With Nukes Built, North Korea Shifts Focus to Economic Development

Tokyo is closely following Washington-Pyongyang negotiations, waiting for the possibility of discussing the fate of the abducted Japanese with the North Korean side. For its part, North Korea believes that the problem was resolved when, in 2002, it expressed regret to Japan about the abductions and allowed five forcibly abducted Japanese to return to their homeland.

According to Tokyo, 17 Japanese nationals were abducted by North Korean security agents and its associates in the 1970s and 1980s, and about 900 more disappeared under circumstances that could potentially involve North Korea's actions. Pyongyang recognized 13 instances of kidnapping Japanese citizens, five of whom were returned to Japan and the remaining eight died. It is believed that some of these Japanese citizens were abducted for the purpose of obtaining their identities, which were then used by North Korean penetration agents in South Korea. Other victims allegedly taught the Japanese language to North Korean intelligence personnel.

The Kyodo news agency reported last year that senior officials from Japanese and North Korean intelligence agencies held secret talks on the abductee issue in Mongolia on 6-8 October.© REUTERS

Japan Arrests North Korean Vessel Crew Suspected of Theft Amid Inflow of 'Ghost Ships' - Reports

Pyongyang has been subject to numerous UN sanctions over the past 10 years for its nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The sanctions target North Korea's exports of natural resources, such as coal, imports of weapons, oil, petroleum products and any financial and material support that could contribute to the development of the country's missile or nuclear programs. Tokyo has repeatedly said that it witnessed suspicious ship-to-ship transfers of goods to North Korea that may be coming in violation of the UN sanctions. However, the tensed situation on the Korean Peninsula has improved since the beginning of last year. During this time, North Korean leader and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have held several meetings, while Kim even had a historic June summit with Trump in Singapore. This summit yielded an agreement stipulating that North Korea would make efforts to promote the complete denuclearization of the peninsula in exchange for the United States and South Korea freezing their military drills as well as the potential removal of US sanctions

Foreign Minister south Korea Kang's response (yonhap).

"There's no shifting, not a bit, about what the goal is," Kang said. "It's complete denuclearization. It's a goal stated in a series of (U.N) Security Council resolutions."

In fact, the U.S. is negotiating "on behalf of the global community," she added.

Kang said Seoul supports a "comprehensive" accord and "step-by-step" corresponding measures, including the declaration of a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.

The North also hopes for "phased, synchronized" measures in the peace process.

"The denuclearization challenge is a process. It's a goal. There are many things that need to happen in that process, not necessarily sequentially," she said. "The nature of that declaration is something that will also further encourage the denuclearization process along. We still think it's a very good step for all concerned to take."

Humanitarian assistance is among the other early incentives for the North, where many of the 24-million people are suffering poverty.

The U.S. recently decided to facilitate North Korea aid by global humanitarian agencies.

"It is a positive signal and we've always argued that humanitarian assistance has to be separately considered," Kang said.

SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea needs to resolve "procedural" issues before sending its promised Tamiflu to North Korea, a unification ministry official said Tuesday amid speculation that sanctions might be behind the protracted delay.

The government promised to send 200,000 doses of the antiviral drugs to North Korea via a land route over their western border, but delivery, which had initially been scheduled for Jan. 11, has been repeatedly put off for reasons that are unclear.

"There are no special issues," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity. "By resolving procedural problems, we will get (the drugs) delivered without a ditch."

On concerns that its shipment could be further delayed beyond the point at which the drugs become ineffective as peak season influenza ends, the official said that the government recognizes the worries and is doing its best to send it "as soon as possible."

Speculation has arisen that sanctions might be behind the prolonged delay. The ministry earlier said that it had discussed the matter with the U.S. through a working-group session in December to make sure it does not violate sanctions.

Asked if the sanctions might be a factor, the official declined to elaborate, saying details related to inter-Korean projects are being discussed in consultations with the U.S. through diverse channels.

The Tamiflu provision plan was based on information that about 150,000 North Korean people were confirmed to have been infected with influenza from late 2017 to early 2018. The leaders of the two Koreas earlier agreed to work together to prevent the spread of infectious disease

Charlie Campbell / Shanghai

2:31 AM EST

If the first meeting was about making friends, the second summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un must now get down to business. The White House announced Jan. 19 that the President and the North Korean leader will sit down again before the end of February in an attempt to inject life into a stalled denuclearization process.

A location has not yet been confirmed but the smart money is on the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. The optics would seem to work for both sides: From the U.S. perspective, the authoritarian Southeast Asian powerhouse offers a political and economic model that Washington wouldn’t mind North Korea following.

For North Korea, Vietnam is an Asian nation riven during the Cold War but finally reunited by the Communist North’s crushing defeat of the American-backed South. Not to mention a former bitter foe of the U.S. that Washington is now desperately trying to forge better ties with to counterbalance rival superpower China.

In short: North Korea’s aspiration is Vietnam’s history.

The Brief source: time.com/5509195/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-vietnam-hanoi-summit/

You are really a sick and disillusioned young puppy. Kim may have the same aspirations as Ho Chi Minh, but the two situations are diametrically opposed, completely different, and impossible to achieve for him. Do you really think that with three times the population and no desire for communism he stands any chance of converting South Korea to one government under a communistic, despotic garbage dump like he has done with the North?

This unlike Vietnam is a two state solution.

north korea was occupied by Japan from 1911-1945 then briefly by Russia then it was apart of korea for 4 whole years and rebelled with chinas help it has remained secluded but independent. the article is written and published by Time take the slant up with them. a treaty signature to end hostilities on the peninsula not to full unification process such as germany has done....

Without full reunification is another angle that can not be Vietnamized. Ain't gonna happen under Kim, possibly the South carries their case after little rocket man is gone. None of those generals with tall caps (they are all short men) look like they are eager to launch any kind of war. 

Anyway, no matter where they meet or what they do, the situation is absolutely nothing like Vietnam. 

Kang also said that declaring a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War was “something that will also further encourage the denuclearization process.” She said humanitarian assistance for North Korea must be “separately considered” from the ongoing talks.

Meanwhile, the newspaper reported that the U.S.’s special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, had asked North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui for a freeze on nuclear fuel and weapons production. The request was made during working-level talks that took place in Sweden after the summit announcement, the report said, citing diplomatic officials in Washington that it didn’t identify.

It hAS BEEN OVER 400 DAYS since North Korea test fired a missle or tested any nuclear weapon. dialogue is painstakingly slow but compared to previous administrations and the nearly 70 years that have past this rocketing forward to a peace treaty and an end to a nuclear armed north korea. Yes a huge difference Vietnam won their war and we normalized relations, North korea fought to a draw and we are still at war.

It has been "painstakingly slow" for 70 years and you do not yet have a settlement in your pocket. Don't count your chickens before they hatch. With the protection of China, Kim can continue to play this game another 70 years if he lives that long. Don't kid yourself about the peninsula, China would let Kim take the initial hit and then "rescue" N.K. by overrunning the whole peninsula. China may not even accept a revolution overthrowing Kim and uniting with the South. They are not giving up one square inch of N.K.