DPRK hopes for 'wise' US moves

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea stressed on Thursday that it hoped to see the United States act "wisely" before the end of this year. The message from Pyongyang came despite the DPRK's top leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump continuing to have good relations.

In a statement from Kim Kyegwan, adviser to the Foreign Ministry, the DPRK urged the US to "change its attitude" in the next two months, apparently referring to the deadline Pyongyang set for Washington to come up with a new proposal in the denuclearization negotiations, the DPRK's Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday.

In the statement, the senior DPRK official Kim criticized Washington's officials for being "hostile" to Pyongyang and preoccupied with a "Cold War mentality", despite Trump's political judgment and intentions.

"There is still a possibility of moving forward, but it depends on the actions of the US. We want to see how wise the US will be by the end of the year," Kim Kye-gwan added.

In the same statement, Kim Kyegwan also said that the relations between Kim and Trump were firm, and "the trust in each other is still there".

"When I met the chairman (Kim Jong-un) and reported to him the pending problems arising in external affairs, including the issue of relations between the DPRK and the US, a few days ago, he said that the relationship between him and President Trump is special," Kim said.

According to Li Chengri, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the latest remarks from Pyongyang appear to be aimed at pushing Washington to be more flexible in nuclear talks, while signaling Pyongyang's intention to resume negotiations that remain stalled.

By emphasizing the personal relations between the two leaders while criticizing Washington's officials, the DPRK seemed to be seeking yet another summit with the US, as it saw such a top-down approach as having a better chance of producing progress in talks with the US, Li said.

"The statement can be understood as Pyongyang's intention to push for a top-down approach in talks with Washington in the hope that summit talks could have more of a chance for Pyongyang to get what it wants rather than working-level meetings like the previous one in Sweden," Li said, while adding that Trump had also touted his "special bond" with Kim many times.

Earlier this month, the two countries held working-level meetings in Sweden's capital Stockholm for the first time since the collapse of the second summit between Kim and Trump over how to reconcile Pyongyang's demand for sanctions relief from Washington and the US position for the DPRK to further denuclearize.

The meeting, however, broke down as they failed to narrow differences.

In April, Kim Jong-un said he would wait for the US to make a "courageous" decision before the end of the year. Li said this suggested that Pyongyang could make a major shift in the country's nuclear policy next year if Washington remained reluctant to change its approach to negotiations.

panmengqi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/25/2019 page11)