‘Korea, US not on same page on NK issues’

The inconsistent words used by South Korea and the United States in terming their decision to end a bilateral “working group” on North Korea policy raises questions about whether the two sides are totally on the same page about it.

The foreign ministry said Tuesday that Seoul and Washington agreed to consider “terminating” the consultative forum during the talks between U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim and his South Korean counterpart the previous day.

The announcement was taken immediately as a conciliatory gesture designed to prod North Korea back to the negotiating table as Pyongyang has denounced the working group as a key hindrance to inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation and called for it to be scrapped.

However, the U.S. envoy gave a different account later, saying in a meeting with experts that the working group was not being terminated, but “readjusted,” according to people familiar with the matter.

In Washington, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that “consultation and cooperation” with South Korea will continue on North Korea policy after he was asked to confirm Seoul’s announcement about the ending of the working group.

“It is most certainly not ending, far from it. We’ll continue it through a variety of diplomatic mechanisms at all levels of our government,” he said during a press briefing.

Observers said the different wording appears to indicate Seoul’s hope to put a formal end to the forum in a conciliatory gesture to Pyongyang as it seeks to create fresh momentum for resumption of the stalled nuclear dialogue, while Washington sees little need to do so.

A foreign ministry official in Seoul later clarified that “conclusion” was the exact term agreed between the two sides.

The working group was set up in 2018 amid a flurry of diplomacy with Pyongyang as a channel to coordinate the approaches to the North’s nuclear issues, sanctions and inter-Korean cooperation.

But the inter-Korean projects fell through as the issue of easing sanctions to pull off those projects could not be resolved. The North has blasted the working group platform as an impediment to carrying out inter-Korean exchanges.

Still, South Korea and the U.S. are fully committed to continuing the dialogue on North Korea through other mechanisms, First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun said, mentioning that a comprehensive policy dialogue will continue at the director general-level.

“Even if the working group is gone, that doesn’t mean the suspension of such coordination,” Choi said in a parliamentary session Tuesday.