US Officials Strike Hawkish Chord, But Confirm North Korea Diplomacy Still Open

Envoy warns US would never accept incremental denuclearization

The failure of the Hanoi summit was followed by upbeat projections for future talks by both the US and North Korea. With no clarity on when future talks will take place, administration officials are now less optimistic, and more hawkish, about what is to come.

US special envoy Stephen Biegun said that diplomacy is “still very much alive,” but the good news ended there. Biegun followed this up by hyping the possibility of a rocket test, something officials had been downplaying as recently as yesterday. John Bolton, who downplayed that idea, is now focusing on US opposition to any tests.

Perhaps the biggest problem for diplomacy, however, is that Biegun is now saying that the US opposes doing any incremental denuclearization, saying the US could never agree to a phased approach.

While the US has always made full denuclearization its end goal, the reality of a phased process was also generally accepted. While President Trump had long said there was no rush on North Korea, the new position seems to stake out an unattainable ideal of full, instant denuclearizaiton as the only thing the US will accept, after a year of accepting North Korea could never deliver that.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.