Washington, Pyongyang 'Brave' Enough to Denuclearize Korean Peninsula - Scholar

As US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went on to hold a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Robert Winstanley-Chesters, research fellow at the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific, explained to Radio Sputnik what these talks might eventually lead to.

Radio Sputnik: Mike Pompeo’s previous visit failed to make progress with North Korea. How high are hopes of any advancement of talks now?

Robert Winstanley-Chesters: Friday, Mike Pompeo tried to downplay the hopes for this summit. There was some speculation that this particular trip to Pyongyang might elicit a time and a date in the process for having the next summit between them – Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.

But it seems that the State Department has tried to play this down somewhat. So I don’t think that anyone really knows quite what the ambitions were with this summit other than to keep talking.

And it’s an interesting sort of triangulation between Japan, South Korea and North Korea at this point…

Radio Sputnik: What are the chances that this particular meeting will bear any fruit, perhaps outlining a potential deal between the US and North Korea, and what kind of deal would satisfy both countries?

Robert Winstanley-Chesters: I think we all know that the Trump administration, especially John Bolton… the only real deal is what they called a verifiable denuclearization. It is essentially a process where North Korea got rid of its nuclear capability, its nuclear capacity, and it was possible to check that through weapons inspectors or nuclear inspectors. That’s the only ultimate solution that the Americans are going to be happy with.

But of course, from the North Korea’s perspective, it would only be happy to give away its nuclear capacity and capability if the United States could no longer threaten it, or promised… a security process of no longer threatening it, as it perceives it, with nuclear capabilities itself; withdrawing the nuclear umbrella from North Korea and from the Korean Peninsula, probably withdrawing troops from South Korea.

And those are very big asks from North Korea. And there’s also the issues of what Japan would think of this and how this would play in the whole East Asian framework.

So both sides have very big asks, but I don’t particularly perceive that it would be impossible, in the long term, for either of those things to happen.

In a sense, it requires both sides to be a little brave, but both sides have demonstrated that they are capable of being a little bit brave, and both sides have a leadership which seems determined to make decisions.

The views and opinions expressed by Robert Winstanley-Chesters are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.