A senior North Korean diplomat who recently defected to South Korea told Reuters that North Korea wants to restart nuclear talks with the United States if Donald Trump is re-elected president and is working on a new negotiating strategy.
Ri Il-gyu’s escape from Cuba last month made headlines around the world. He was the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat to defect to South Korea since 2016.
In his first interview with international media, Ri said North Korea has set Russia, the United States and Japan as its top foreign policy priorities for this year and beyond.
As well as strengthening ties with Russia, Ri said Pyongyang is eager to reopen nuclear talks provided Trump – who engaged in fierce detente and unprecedented diplomacy with North Korea during his previous term – wins re-election in November.
Ri said Pyongyang’s diplomats were preparing a strategy for this scenario, aimed at lifting sanctions on its weapons programs, removing its status as a state sponsor of terrorism and receiving economic aid.
His comments signal a possible change in North Korea’s current stance, after it recently rejected the possibility of talks with the United States and warned of armed confrontation.
A summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Trump in Vietnam in 2019 fell apart because of the sanctions, which Ri partly blamed on Kim’s decision to entrust nuclear diplomacy to “inexperienced, ignorant” military commanders.
“Kim Jong Un doesn’t know much about international relations and diplomacy, or even how to make strategic decisions,” he said.
“This time, the State Department will definitely gain power and take charge, and it won’t be so easy for Trump to tie North Korea’s hands and feet again for four years without giving it anything.”
Russian ties, Japan aid
Building closer ties with Russia helped North Korea with its missile technology and economy. But the bigger benefit could be preventing additional sanctions and easing existing ones, Ri said, adding that it would increase Pyongyang’s bargaining power against Washington.
“Russia has got its hands dirty by engaging in illegal transactions and because of that North Korea no longer needs to rely on the US to lift sanctions, which essentially means they have taken away an important bargaining tool from the US,” he said.
In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he wanted to meet Kim, but the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and ’80s has long been a hurdle.
According to Ri, Kim would like to hold a summit with Japan aimed at receiving economic aid in exchange for concessions on the abductee issue.
Tokyo believes 17 of its citizens were abducted, five of whom returned to Japan in 2002. Pyongyang considers the issue settled, acknowledging the abduction of 13 Japanese citizens and saying those missing are either dead or their whereabouts are unknown.
Ri said he would be willing to change the status quo established by Kim Jong Il in order to receive economic aid.
“They are saying the issue is resolved, but it is just to increase their negotiating power until they make concessions at the summit,” he said.
Resentment and defection
After studying at a French school in Algeria and living in Cuba with his late father, a state media reporter, Ri says he had imagined life in South Korea since childhood but never tried to flee until a diplomatic colleague threatened him when he refused a bribe demand.
Then came the decisive moment when Pyongyang swiftly rejected his request to receive medical treatment at his own expense in Mexico for a ruptured disc in his neck.
“This brought out the anger I had against the government,” he said.
Ri said the COVID-19 lockdown added to the hardships for those at home and those stationed overseas, as most of Pyongyang’s telephone lines were cut to prevent any information from spreading to the outside world.
Financial troubles have forced North Korea to close a dozen of its 54 diplomatic missions.
“When they start to reopen and call back those working overseas in early 2023, they ask them to bring everything from used toothbrushes to spoons back home, saying there is nothing there,” he said.
Rhee also oversaw the beginning of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Cuba (North Korea’s Cold War-era ally) — and attempted to obstruct it while in office.
“I did everything I could to prevent this from happening, but establishing relations with Cuba was the best thing South Korea did over the past year,” he said. “It was a perfect example of how the currents of history have changed, and where a common decency of the international community is headed.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
