Nuke test may be a 'political decision' away, says top envoy

Foreign Minister Park Jin speaks with the press after his visit to the Korean War veterans memorial in Washington DC on Sunday. [PARK HYUN-YOUNG]

Foreign Minister Park Jin said there is “only a political decision left” before Pyongyang goes ahead with its seventh nuclear test.

“It launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, short-range ballistic missiles, and now it appears that preparations for the seventh nuclear test have been completed,” Park told a group of reporters after a visit to the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington on Sunday. “So it seems that only a political decision remains.”

While stressing that the most important thing is to “strengthen deterrence so that North Korea cannot make provocations,” Park added that the door to diplomacy is still open to Pyongyang.

“President Yoon Seok-yeol said that if North Korea achieves denuclearization, the South Korean government can pursue bold plans on economic cooperation and the future prosperity of North Korea, so I hope North Korea will listen carefully and make the right choice,” Park said.

He added that the international community is open to providing vaccines and other humanitarian support to the North. A recent Covid-19 outbreak in the country was reported to have resulted in millions of cases.

“It’s a pity that Pyongyang hasn’t responded to these offers,” he said.

Park is in Washington through Wednesday to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other U.S. officials to discuss a number of issues including North Korea, supply chain resilience and energy.

It will be the first time for Park to meet Blinken since he was sworn in as foreign minister last month.

Park said he expects to discuss in detail possible bilateral responses to North Korea’s provocations during their meeting on Monday in Washington.

Prior to his departure to the United States, Park told the JoongAng Ilbo in an interview that there can be no substantial dialogue with the North on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula unless the North comes to the table ready to present the truth about where its nuclear and missile capacity stands today and where exactly they are located in the country.

“There can be no substantial denuclearization without inspection and verification,” he told the paper on Friday. “It is necessary to check how far North Korea has developed nuclear weapons and missiles, where they are, and what the related facilities are.”

The Yoon administration has brought back the acronym for complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of North Korea, or CVID, which was avoided by the Moon Jae-in administration to avoid upsetting the North.

Park added that the new administration in Seoul sees China as playing a key regional role in the denuclearization of North Korea.

“I want to maintain strategic communication with China and create a relationship where we can talk openly,” Park said in the interview. “I think China has its own concerns about the North Korean nuclear issue. If there is a secondary boycott [on China to pressure Beijing to take part in sanctions on the North], China will also feel a significant burden. Before we get to that point, we expect China to play a constructive role in its North Korea policy.”

Seoul-Beijing ties dipped to a low after Korea decided to deploy U.S-led antimissile system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad), in 2016 to counter missile threats from the North. Beijing said the system would be used by Washington to spy on China.

“The development of the Korea-U.S. alliance and Korea-China ties are not mutually exclusive,” Park told the JoongAng Ilbo.

Park traveled to Washington in April as a People Power Party representative and Yoon’s special envoy to the United States. Shortly after Park was nominated as foreign minister, he helped coordinate Yoon’s summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Seoul in May.

Park was also scheduled to meet with U.S. Sectary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm during his visit.

“As the global supply chain is rapidly changing, we will discuss ways of cooperation in economic security, peace and prosperity in the Indo Pacific region, and restoration of peace in Ukraine,” Park told the press at Incheon International Airport prior to boarding the U.S.-bound plane on Sunday.

On the same day in Washington, the newly appointed Korean ambassador to the United States, Cho Tae-yong, met with a group of reporters to discuss Seoul’s North Korea policies.

“At a time when North Korea's nuclear test is imminent and North Korea's tactical nuclear weapons development and deployment are imminent, North Korea's nuclear and missile threats are no longer a written threat, but a real threat facing us,” he said.

North Korea has ramped up its military provocations this year, with 31 ballistic missile launches since Jan. 1, the most ballistic missiles it has ever launched in a single year, including an intercontinental ballistic missile on May 25. Its previous record was 25 missiles in 2019.

Recent satellite images of North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear testing site, the site for all of its six nuclear tests, suggested the regime is gearing up for a seventh nuclear test.

“It is time to increase the strength of the Korea-U.S. alliance based on the extended deterrence of the United States to protect the lives and property of our people because the threat from North Korea has become a real threat we face,” Cho said. “Special efforts and attention will be needed to strengthen the readiness posture of the Korea-U.S. alliance, which was neglected under the Moon Jae-in administration.”

BY PARK HYUN-YOUNG, ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]