Surprise! North Korea has rejected Rex Tillerson’s request for unconditional talks with the United States.
The secretary of State made his offer in mid-December: “Let’s just meet,” he implored the North Korean regime, “. . . We can talk about the weather if you want. We can talk about whether it’s going to be a square table or a round table if that’s what you’re excited about.” In so doing, he was following the advice of most mainstream North Korea scholars in the United States, who have urged, for years, a return to discussions between Washington and Pyongyang.
But it takes two to talk. And North Korea has now made it clear it was in no such mood. A Rodong Sinmun editorial, which speaks for the regime, has said the dictatorship is “not interested” in discussions with the United States.
Indeed, North Korea has been notably resistant to dovish moves from the outside world. South Korea recently elected a new, liberal-leaning president, Moon Jae-in. During the election campaign, Moon made it clear that he wanted to restart dialogue with Korea’s threatening neighbor to the north, and perhaps even go back to the Sunshine Policy, which saw the South lavish unconditional aid on the North in the early 2000s. But President Moon’s overtures have been spurned. He couldn’t pursue “appeasement,” as Donald Trump accused him of doing, even if he wanted to. And so now even Moon has come around to throwing more sanctions on the North.
All of this makes perfect sense. North Korea has made the (probably correct) calculus that only by being a bona fide nuclear power will allow its regime to survive. So, from its perspective, what is there to talk about? And, indeed, from our perspective, what is there to talk about?
At the present moment, not much.
