After eight months of diplomatic standstill, the United States and North Korea will resume their disarmament negotiations for the first time since the Hanoi Summit last February, where the two countries clashed over concessions for the denuclearization of North Korea. Following the breakdown between the two nations in Hanoi, it became clear that if the United States wishes to denuclearize North Korea, it must stop with its current Libya-like, maximum-pressure strategy that pushes for unilateral denuclearization before any reciprocal concessions are given to North Korea. Only a step by step, “small-deal” approach that includes concessions of seemingly equal value will push these negotiations forward. Compromise, and compromise alone, is the United States’ only chance to get North Korea to dispose of its nuclear arsenal.
During the United Nations General Assembly meeting in late September, North Korea said that it was more than willing to proceed with negotiations. Outside of diplomatic meetings, North Korea has also been taking apparent strides to make peace talks smoother. The country has paused all intercontinental missile tests and nuclear tests, and it has also shut off a nuclear-testing and satellite-launching site. Furthermore, North Korea has returned to the United States the remains of 55 American soldiers who were killed in the Korean War, as well as freed three American citizens who were arrested in the spring of 2017 in Pyongyang.
The United States, on the other hand, has canceled a single war game in their joint exercises with South Korea.
This action (or, rather, inaction) is symbolic of Washington’s attitude toward dealing with the disarmament situation as a whole: belligerent and uncompromising. The United States has long pushed for the immediate, unilateral nuclear disarmament of North Korea upfront, meaning that the talks around the reciprocation of concessions for North Korea will begin only after its total disarmament. In this way, the interests of the respective countries are almost fundamentally opposite. North Korea has insisted on receiving concessions before the disarmament, such as the lifting of economic sanctions. It has also refused to completely surrender its nuclear capabilities, because doing so would make it vulnerable. North Korea wants an official peace accord, a declaration that the Korean War ended, as well as an end to the U.S.-South Korea military exercises.
The United States needs to take a more relenting, compromising approach to this fresh round of talks. In recent history, Washington has focused so much on making sure that North Korea becomes and remains disarmed that it has forgotten that North Korea needs a guarantee that the U.S will not invade it. In order to receive, one must give; in order to reach a deal, Trump needs to give concessions to North Korea. And, as the missile test in North Korea that happened just hours before the announcement of the revival of the disarmament talks shows, North Korea will continue to advance its nuclear programs unless appropriate concessions are given. Now is not the time for asserting dominance. Now is the time for a deal.
