Biden will meet Moon, Joe Biden News will appoint a new U.S. envoy to North Korea

Joe Biden, the U.S. president, has appointed a special envoy to talk to North Korea, saying he and South Korean President Moon Jae-in remain “very concerned” about Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal.

At a joint news conference on Friday, Biden also said he would meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – in the right conditions.

The U.S. president told White House reporters that his ultimate goal was the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, but said he was “excited” about North Korea’s difficulties in abandoning its nuclear arsenals.

“We’re both very concerned about the situation,” Biden said, speaking with Moon. “Our two nations also share a willingness to act diplomatically [North Korea] taking pragmatic steps to reduce tensions ”on the Korean peninsula.

To help encourage that effort, Biden said Sung Kim, a veteran State Department official, would act as a special envoy to North Korea.

Korean-American diplomat Sung Kim served as special envoy to North Korea for former President Barack Obama and helped lead President Kim Trump’s summit.

He has also served as ambassador to South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia, and has recently served as a senior US diplomat for East Asia.

The summit of Biden-Kim?

Pyongyang has so far rejected demands for U.S. diplomacy since Biden took over from Trump, who made three summits with the Kim summit and both exchanged “beautiful letters.”

Kim, however, refused to give up his nuclear weapons, but imposed a freeze on testing. He has not tested a nuclear bomb or intercontinental ballistic missile since 2017, although experts believe his arsenal has steadily grown.

Moon, who left his post next year for a post with a commitment to North Korea, said Sung Kim’s appointment “reflects the US’s firm commitment to exploring diplomacy and its readiness for dialogue with North Korea.”

He said he expects a positive response.

Asked if Biden will think about continuing with Trump’s headline but ultimately not sterile summit with Kim, the U.S. president said the conditions should be completely different.

The North Korean leader must commit to “the debate over its nuclear arsenal,” Biden said, and his advisers must allow him to meet with U.S. counterparts to lay the groundwork before that summit.

“I wouldn’t do what I did in the recent past; I wouldn’t give everything he was looking for – international recognition would be legal and it would allow him to … move in a direction that appears more serious with what wasn’t more serious, ”he said.

‘Sell hard’

Biden’s comments reflected a change in his thinking.

The White House said in March that it was not Biden’s intention to meet with the North Korean leader.

38 Jenny Town of the North, a project that observes North Korea in Washington, said Sung Kim’s appointment is positive because he said the Biden administration was in no hurry to fill the position.

However, he has given no indication as to what concessions he might offer in creating the talks.

“The problem has been that the administration has only talked about denuclearization and continues its relations with North Korea as a nuclear negotiation,” he told Reuters.

“So it’s still a tough sale to get the North Koreans back to the table, but obviously the Moon will push it very hard.”

While Moon said Biden expressed support for dialogue and cooperation within Korea, Town said that doesn’t mean much when Washington refuses to ease sanctions against Pyongyang, allowing Seoul to move forward with this space. unless given.

The White House announced last month that it had completed a review of North Korean policy and would move away from the strategies of Biden’s recent predecessors, deeply rejecting Trump’s personal effort to win over Kim and a more generous view of Obama.

The Biden administration has not yet determined what will be the third way it has pushed the North to abandon its nuclear program.

‘Old friends’

On the day of the talks, Biden and Moon also reaffirmed a strong alliance between the two countries after tensions erupted over Trump, who disrupted Moon as a weakling and threatened to withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea.

Moon was the second foreign leader to visit the White House since Biden took office in January – after the Japanese prime minister, and Biden said their talks had been “longtime friends”.

Both discussed China and Taiwan.

Taiwan has repeatedly denounced the military pressure it is exerting on Beijing as the Chinese air force frequently makes attempts in the area to identify Taiwan’s air defense.

“We believe that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are very important, and we have agreed to work together on this issue, taking into account the special features of China-Taiwan relations,” Moon said.

In another win for Moon, which has come under pressure from handling the COVID-19 pandemic at home, it said the U.S. and South Korea have agreed on a vaccine partnership that would combine U.S. experience and Korean production capacity.

This, he said, will help supply COVID-19 vaccines in the Indo-Pacific region, while Biden said the U.S. will provide vaccines to 550,000 South Korean soldiers.