A White House official on Tuesday reiterated America’s openness to dialogue with North Korea on a “wide” range of topics “without preconditions,” after her mention last month of possible “interim steps” towards the North’s denuclearization raised questions over a potential U.S. policy shift.
During a press briefing, Mira Rapp-Hooper, the National Security Council senior director for East Asia and Oceania, elaborated on her earlier remarks about Washington’s openness to considering interim steps for a path toward the North’s denuclearization.
In the negotiation lexicon for the North, interim steps usually involve such measures as Pyongyang’s freeze of its nuclear weapons development in return for sanctions relief or other incentives — a reason why her remarks spawned speculation about a potential U.S. policy change.
“That comment about interim steps is often being interpreted in a strict arms control sense of the definition of what interim steps might mean,” she said during the briefing at the Foreign Pre
ss Center.
“We are open to talking about a wide range of topics with the DPRK should they wish to talk to us about things that can make the Korean Peninsula and the Indo-Pacific safer,” she added. DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
She also highlighted that the idea of interim steps is “totally consistent” with the policy approach that the administration of President Joe Biden has been articulating.
“As you know, we have reached out to the DPRK many times and have not had any response,” she said. “The message that was articulated there is that we would like them to come to the table and tell us what they want to talk about and we will be ready to talk.”
To some critics in South Korea, the idea of interim steps with Pyongyang struck a sour note as it can be construed as a possible distraction from the ultimate goal of the North’s complete denuclearization.
But other experts have viewed interim steps as a needed step to create momentum in what could be a t
ime-consuming process to keep the North on track towards the end state of its denuclearization.
Commenting on an upcoming visit to the North by China’s top legislator, Zhao Leji, Rapp-Hooper expressed hopes that during the trip, the Chinese official will raise issues about North Korea’s worrisome rhetoric and actions and its military cooperation with Russia.
“We hope that they will raise these issues in the interest of making the region more peaceful and stable,” she said.
On the summit between Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida set for Wednesday, Rapp-Hooper said that she is not expecting any North Korea-specific announcement from their meeting.
“But we are excited about continuing to further the progress that we make on regional defense, regional missile defense integration more broadly,” she said.
On trilateral cooperation among South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, the official said that progress in the three-way partnership will be noted in joint statements from the Biden-Kishida summit.
As
ked if the U.S. sees any possibility of South Korea joining Pillar II of the AUKUS security partnership that consists of the U.S., Britain and Australia, she said the defense chiefs of the AUKUS members will discuss potential partner countries in addition to Japan.
“They will be talking to a range of highly capable partners who would be good fits for these projects. I will leave those consultations to the defense ministers,” she said.
On Monday, AUKUS defense ministers issued a joint statement, noting that they are considering Japan on Pillar II advanced capability projects.
Launched in September 2021 in an apparent move to counter China’s regional influence, AUKUS consists of two key pillars. Pillar I is to support Australia in acquiring conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines, while Pillar II is for cooperation on high-tech areas, including quantum computing, artificial intelligence and hypersonics.
Source: Yonhap News Agency