White House: “No response from North Korea to specific proposals”… Security Council’s ‘missile discussion’ canceled due to opposition between China and Russia

U.S. maintains urging for dialogue with North Korea

The White House reaffirmed its readiness to engage in dialogue with North Korea on a full spectrum of issues. However, it said that North Korea has not yet responded to a concrete proposal from the United States. On the same day, the UN Security Council held a closed emergency meeting to discuss North Korea’s missile launch, but failed to adopt a joint statement due to opposition from China and Russia.

At a regular briefing on the 1st (local time), White House press secretary Jen Saki said, “We are making specific proposals for discussion with North Korea,” in response to a reporter’s question about his position on North Korea’s recent missile launch and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s intention to restore inter-Korean communication lines. However, up to this point, I have not received a response.” “We are still ready to discuss a full range of issues,” he said, emphasizing that the United States has been actively working on the North Korean issue.

Regarding North Korea’s recent missile launch, he said, “We are evaluating the specific nature” and then mentioned the fact that related ministries, including the Ministry of National Defense, have already issued a statement. Earlier, the US authorities expressed their condemnation of North Korea’s claims of missile launch tests, especially hypersonic launch tests, saying they “take it seriously”, but emphasized a solution through diplomacy and urged North Korea to respond to dialogue. After the Joe Biden administration finished reviewing its North Korea policy in April, it seems that the US has also attempted to reach out to bring North Korea to the table, regardless of South Korea’s efforts.

North Korea has yet to respond to the US proposal to meet without conditions. Rather, Chairman Kim Jong-un said to the Biden administration in his address to the Supreme People’s Assembly on the 29th of last month, “The US military threat and hostile policy has not changed at all. Rather, the form and method of expression are becoming more cunning.” Although the US has no hostile intentions toward North Korea, it is in the position that if North Korea engages in dialogue, it can discuss all agendas, such as sanctions relief and an end-of-war declaration, but it cannot give favorable measures to North Korea first.

White House Press Secretary Jen Saki answers a reporter’s question in the briefing room of the White House in Washington on the 1st. AFP Yonhap News

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council (Security Council) held a closed emergency meeting on the launch of a hypersonic missile from North Korea at the United Nations headquarters in New York on the same day. The meeting lasted about an hour, but the Security Council did not reach an agreement to adopt a joint statement. “France wanted to adopt a joint statement, but Russia and China have said that it is not yet time for that,” a diplomat from the Security Council told AFP.

The emergency meeting of the Security Council, which was originally scheduled to be convened on the 30th of last month, was held a day later at the request of China and Russia that ‘more time is needed for review’. Over the North’s missile launch, the permanent members of the Security Council are split into two sides and are engaged in a fierce battle. When the United States, Britain, and France demanded the convening of a Security Council meeting immediately after the hypersonic missile test launch, the remaining permanent members, China and Russia, appear to be betting on ‘nonsense’. It is unusual for the United States to directly request a meeting on North Korean missile launches.

On the 28th of last month, North Korea test-fired a newly developed hypersonic missile Hwasong-8 in Doyang-ri, Ryongrim-gun, Jagang Province. Hypersonic missiles, which charge toward the target at a speed of more than five times the speed of sound, are virtually impossible to intercept with the existing missile defense (MD) system, so they are called ‘next-generation game changers’. In particular, on the 30th of last month, North Korea disclosed the fact that it had test-fired a new surface-to-air missile just before the Security Council meeting.

Heo Kyung-ju reporter fairyhkj@hankookilbo.com

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