South Korea’s presidential office has confirmed that they may hold a new round of direct talks with North Korea soon to try to improve dialogue between the US and North Korea since the failed Hanoi summit.
Since the Hanoi summit fell apart, with President Trump walking away,
the US and North Korea have both tried to advance their respective
narratives on what’s happened and whose fault it was. South Korea seemed
content to let them do that, so long as both sides kept insisting that
they were determined to continue talks.
Recently, however, both US and North Korean officials have gotten
increasingly hostile. The US is now accusing North Korea of planning new
missile tests, and North Korean officials are openly doubting whether
further talks are worthwhile.
South Korea stands to lose as much as anyone if these talks fail, and
that’s got them interested in trying to salvage the US-North Korea
diplomatic track. This isn’t the first time South Korea has felt the
need to step in like this, though clearly the US and North Korea, left
to their own devices, get into major problems quite often.
South Korea May Hold Talks With North to Ease Tensions With US
Officials want to ensure that talks will go on after Hanoi
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.
Join the Discussion!
We welcome thoughtful and respectful comments. Hateful language, illegal content, or attacks against Antiwar.com will be removed.
For more details, please see our Comment Policy.
