TOKYO -- South Korea's Foreign Ministry on Saturday urged Washington and Pyongyang not to walk away from the negotiating table despite the unexpected cancellation of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's planned trip to North Korea. China on Saturday lashed out at President Donald Trump for accusing Beijing of not being supportive in efforts to denuclearize the North.
Trump called off Pompeo's visit Friday, just days before the secretary was to arrive in Pyongyang, citing insufficient progress in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The abrupt shift in Trump's public position appeared to surprise many people in Asia but did not come as a complete shock -- many observers had sensed that negotiations between the two sides had stalled.
Trump also said the nuclear negotiations with North Korea have been hampered by a lack of support from China, which is the North's only major ally and is engaged in an intensifying trade dispute with the United States.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry blasted Trump's comments.
"The U.S. statement violates basic facts and is irresponsible," the ministry said on its website. "We are seriously concerned about it and have made solemn representations to the U.S. side."
[NUCLEAR NORTH KOREA: Maps, data on country’s nuclear program]Beijing supports "advancing the process of a political settlement" after Trump's meeting with the North's Kim Jong un in Singapore, the statement said.
It appealed to both sides to "show more sincerity and flexibility" instead of "being capricious and overly prejudiced."
North Korea did not immediately react to Trump's announcement. But South Korea sought to play down concerns.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha spoke to Pompeo by telephone Saturday and expressed regret over the cancellation of the trip while calling for continued talks on peace and North Korea's nuclear program, according to the ministry.
"Rather than reading into each and every turn in the situation, it is more important to focus diplomatic efforts on the faithful execution of what has been agreed in the United States-North Korea summit and the inter-Korean summit, while maintaining the momentum for talks on the long-term outlook," the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said it expects China to continue serving a "constructive role" in international efforts to solve the nuclear crisis and noted that Beijing continues to express commitment to fully implement sanctions against the North.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kano expressed appreciation for Pompeo's "prompt communication" of the decision by telephone and said the two countries would continue to work together to take "specific actions" to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
CHINA'S STANCES
In tweets, Trump argued that because of his "tougher trading stance," the Chinese were not "helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were."
Experts have said that China continues to broadly enact U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea but has eased up on enforcement at the border in recent months. China also has been allowing more Chinese tourists to visit North Korea this year as relations between the two countries have improved significantly.
But Chung Min Lee, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said China is not responsible for the impasse between the United States and North Korea. Trump "overplayed the gains" from his Singapore summit with Kim and needed someone else to blame, Lee said.
Trump is, however, right in one sense, experts said. His trade war with China has caused considerable anger in Beijing and makes it unlikely that the government there could be persuaded to cooperate if the United States wants to return to exerting "maximum pressure" on North Korea economically.
"It's difficult, what Trump is trying to do," Lee said. "He is trying to punish China on trade. ... At the same time, he wants China's help."
Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea expert at the Sejong Institute, a government-affiliated think tank in Seoul, said Trump has the will to resolve the North Korea situation but lacks a coherent strategy.
Post-summit nuclear talks got off to a rocky start, with North Korea accusing the United States of making unilateral demands on denuclearization. The North has been demanding that the United States ease or lift the sanctions that are crippling its economy. It also wants the United States to fast-track discussions to formally declare an end the 1950-53 Korean War, which stopped on an armistice and not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula technically at war.
Pompeo and other administration officials have suggested some concessions short of easing or lifting sanctions are possible before verified denuclearization, but have refused to be specific about what they could be. And they have been skeptical about an end-of-war declaration in the absence of any progress on the nuclear matter.
"On his last visit to Pyongyang, Pompeo reportedly demanded a list of nuclear sites in North Korea without suggesting any plans for compensation in return," Cheong said. "North Korea is aware that the list reveals all their cards to the U.S., and they won't do so without any tangible promise from Washington. The demand for the timeline of denuclearization must come with the timeline for rewards."
Cheong said the cancellation of Pompeo's visit put the ball in the court of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is to visit Pyongyang in September and could play a role in facilitating negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.
Moon, who lobbied hard for the meeting between Trump and Kim, says improving relations between the rivals would be an important part of the global diplomatic efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff because Kim wouldn't give up his arsenal unless he feels safe.
The summitry has led to a variety of conciliatory steps between the Koreas, which have held military talks to reduce tensions across the border, agreed to open a South Korean liaison office in the North, and are currently holding highly emotional reunions between elderly war-separated relatives in North Korea's Diamond Mountain resort.
But the U.S. cancellation also could strengthen China's hand, with President Xi Jinping widely expected to attend Pyongyang's Sept. 9 celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the founding of North Korea.
"If Xi can produce a meaningful agreement with Kim Jong Un on his September visit to Pyongyang, China will get a boost in the diplomacy game by taking on the role the U.S. failed to play," Cheong said.
Park Jie-won, a former special envoy of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung who has met both Kim Jong Un and his father, Kim Jong Il, also warned Trump not to walk away from dialogue.
"If this chance is missed, the future of North Korea will darken towards immense chaos. The leaders of North Korea and the U.S. should go back to Sentosa, Singapore," he posted on his Facebook page Saturday.
Information for this article was contributed by Simon Denyer, Amanda Erickson, Min Joo Kim and Luna Lin of The Washington Post; and by Kim Tong-hyung and Matthew Lee and Joe McDonald of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/26/2018